During the Night
by Crazi.Neko
Summary: a SLASH AU. means guys with guys in an alternate universe. Ritchie was out late one night when a dark teen finds him. Bringing him into a place of secrets, mystery, and a world that wants them dead. Is Ritchie a key to Virgil's past? Or is Virgil his key?
1. And So They Meet

AN: Crazi: Holy Moly Guacamole!

Joey: This is the first Static Shock AU! **things go off**

Otogi: Yeah… AU, with VAMPIRES! 

Yama: She's been reading way too many vampire things lately… -_-;;

Darco: Please, review, thank you! 

-----------------------------

Blood. He could smell it… Hear the heart pounding wildly in someone's veins. Determination laced the smell. Cat like eyes scanned the surrounding darkness for some sign of the beating heart. 

The teen came to a stop panting, resting his hands on his knees. 

"Man, now the old man is sure to kill me it's so late!" he groaned. 

The eyes on him narrowed. Blonde hair over greenish eyes and a beautiful smile. 

"At least he can't get mad at me for doing something I shouldn't have… Not like I went to that club," the blonde muttered. He reached for his bag when he felt the gaze piercing through him. "Who's there?" he demanded turning around looking for some sign that someone was there. After a few moments he turned back to his bag but was grabbed from behind. A hand clamped over his mouth while the other wound around his waist. He began to struggle only he stopped when the voice whispered in his ear. 

"Stop that now… It'll only get you hurt…"

Behind his glasses the teen's eyes squeezed shut forcing tears down his cheeks and onto the chillingly cold hand that covered his mouth. 

"Now, what is your name little one?" the voice whispered carefully lifting his hand away from the other's mouth by less than an inch. 

"Ritchie…" he whispered biting his lip. He shivered when he felt the person's breath on his neck causing his skin to rise with goose pimples. 

"Mmm… Nice name," the man behind him responded, smiling. Ritchie knew he was smiling because he could feel it on his neck causing him to shiver but this time not exactly in fright. "And why are you out this late, Ritchie it's almost the witching hour…"

Ritchie didn't answer but leaned back a bit into the body of his captor whose smile only widened while tightening his grip on the blonde's waist. "Answer me Ritchie," the voice cooed to him making Ritchie's mind cloud up a bit. 

"I had been practicing…" Ritchie said quietly. 

"But it's almost midnight little one," the voice whispered in Ritchie's ear, moistening it slightly. Ritchie couldn't answer as the cold hand that had been over his mouth stroked down his face and neck. "You shouldn't be out alone," he whispered. "Come with me…"

Ritchie snapped out of whatever trance he'd fallen in at the last three words. 'Come with me.' "I-I can't… My parents are probably all ready wiggin' out cause I'm this late," Ritchie started to pull away but the grip on his waist spun him around to face his 'captor'. He looked like he was only about Ritchie's age except of definite African decent. Those eyes though, seemed to glow with their own light. A cold hand caught Ritchie's chin while the other gripped his waist again pulling Ritchie a little closer than he was comfortable with. He'd just met this really, different teen and it wasn't like he was at the club he'd been sneaking off too… There well yeah he got this close to guys, but they were usually dancing and most the time when they tried to make out with him something didn't feel right so he'd tell them to back off and they would. Ritchie had a feeling this guy wasn't going to listen to him if he tried that. 

"Are you that worried about what your parents think? They already don't approve of the path you've chosen…" the dark teen said. 

"How… What are you talking about?" Ritchie asked turning pale but still able to have a most colorful blush on his cheeks. The dark teen's eyes fixed on the blush intently making Ritchie gulp involuntarily. 

"Tell me little one, what your father said when he heard from a co-worker that you were going to that club… What was the name? I think it was Secret Knights…. What did he say little one?"

Ritchie tore away from the grip and looked down, wrapping his arms around himself trying hard to hold back tears at the memory. His father, who he'd looked up to his entire life, had called him lower than everything on Earth because he'd been there… at a gay bar… It wasn't his fault; it's just what he was… He had walked around with a large bruise as well for about a week because of it too… Not that his mother tried to stop him. He made something up about getting in the way of some tough guys who were picking on some other kid. He wasn't exactly in the best of moods so people bought it easily. Even Frieda who just couldn't seem to take the hint that he didn't like her. 

"I know what it feels like… I'm not here to judge you little one."

"What do you want from me then?" Ritchie yelled at him before finding himself being kissed by the mysterious teen. 

"You." Ritchie blinked at the statement. He backed up slightly from the teen. "I want you. I want you to come with me and stay with me for as long as you want but I want you to at least come and see what you could have… I want you to be happy, but most of all I want your love…" Ritchie was wondering how this happened… it seemed so weird. He couldn't get it to fall into place. "Please…" he whispered running his fingers along Ritchie's cheek. 

"I… I'll come," Ritchie said grabbing his bag and moving back to within the circle of the teen's arms. The darker one smiled leaning up to capture Ritchie's lips again when Ritchie stopped him. 

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. 

"You never told me your name," Ritchie said studying the boy's face in the moonlight. 

"It's… Virgil," he said with a smile trying again to claim Ritchie's lips, which he was granted to do.


	2. The Truth and The Past Beginning to Reme...

AN: And here is CHAPTER 2! ^_^

Otogi: she doesn't own it, which she just realized she forgot in the last chapter so yeah….  No one can sue now…

Pietro: Please review… and tell her if she got something on the vamps wrong… just is case…

-------------

"Again Daniel?" asked his elder as Virgil paced the living room of the large house. When he'd gotten there with Ritchie he explained his family was very eccentric and that it was for right now best he didn't talk with them or be near them. Most of them are rather territorial… They just don't like strangers around them in their home, but if Ritchie was with Virgil, nothing would happen to him. Ritchie believed him. "A mortal… You want the past to happen all over again, don't you?!"

"Shut up!" Virgil hissed. "And you know they're after us so we assumed other names! I'm Virgil."

"But he is a MORTAL," his elder repeated. Virgil stayed quiet as he wiped a bit of blood that trailed from his mouth. "Waiting till you're down from the high? How long was that sleeping spell supposed to last?"

"Till I called it off… And you know as well as I do that two of the others in Erick's house have mortal lovers!" Virgil declared. 

"But you are still young…"

"Still young?" he laughed. "Still young? Will I still be young at a thousand years old man?"

"You never will learn…"

"I was a slave in the fields of Africa when you decided on your jaunt there with the queen to 'look for a new slave'! I was the one you chose and this life is what I have to show for it, Dark One!"

"This is still about Richard isn't it?"

"How dare you!" Virgil yelled tears in his eyes before backhanding his companion. 

"My poor African flower…" 

"Duzell," Virgil said blinking. "I'm sorry!"

"No, I understand… Had I been in your shoes and my father brought up Yujinn or Philios, I'd have struck him too…" Duzell said putting a hand on Virgil's head. Virgil fell to his knees sobbing. Duzell sat on a footrest and allowed his youngest to cry in his lap for a few moments. "Virgil, I understand your need for a companion… You did well when we had you blended in at Gotham… And had that damned Batman and his little companion Robin not found us out, we'd still be there… You are old enough to make the choice of who you want your companion to be but you have to understand this."

"Understand what?"

"That no one, in any city, country, or time can ever be Richard… Richard died protecting you and this family Daniel… He was a good choice and had I gotten there sooner, the spell would have resurrected him as one of us… Now, that it has been over nine hundred years, I have to tell you that he's not coming back…."

Daniel, Virgil, nodded before drying his eyes and going back to his room. 

"Was that wise?" asked a female voice from behind him. 

"Well my little Krywl, I don't know…" The cat jumped into Duzell's lap and nodded. 

"Would you like me to keep an eye on them for you?" she asked. 

"That might be wise, Ishtar…" (Those who have recognized the extra characters from Vampire Game, no that isn't Lady Ishtar, that's a pet with the ability to speak named after her since you know, hundreds of hundreds of years have past since then and he's reincarnated for the third time that Duzzy-Wuzzy is! ^_^)

Virgil climbed in next to Ritchie and murmured something causing the blonde to wake slightly and smile at him. "What time is it?" 

"About six," Virgil said looking at the clock only a moment before returning his focus to the blonde. Ritchie made a noise in the back of his throat as he shifted closer and into Virgil's arms. He had never felt so, comfortable in his whole life. The room was enough to make him gawk when he first came in. Virgil had giggled at him before pulling him into a very heated kiss, which he was told, was a last resort in getting his attention. They were lying in a huge canopy bed with dark blue velvet colored silk curtains hanging around. The windows, all six of them, had a different colored rose at the top of them with two sets of tapestry. One of lace and another of a very lovely forest emerald velvet. Every piece of furniture was made of intricately carved wood. He felt like he walked into a bedroom in some sort of castle or something. 

"What?" Ritchie asked basking in Virgil's gaze. 

"Just admiring the beauty I came across on walk I took because I couldn't sleep," Virgil answered, earning a blush. He leaned down and captured lips with his own in a kiss pulling the blonde close to him before settling down to sleep. 

---------------------------------

"Two days! Our son hasn't been home in two days! Report this Rick! You're a cop for the love of God!" a woman yelled at her husband. 

"You know as well as I do that he's probably at that club sleeping there with some guy he doesn't know!" Rick answered. 

"Richard is so much smarter than that Rick! Please! I want my baby to come home!"

"He'll probably come home when he's out of money or is starting to get sick because he caught some STD!" Rick ran a hand through his dark, almost brown, blonde hair. "Look, Sarah, I'll ask around if any of the guys have seen him but I can't guarantee you anything right now," Rick said trying to calm down his wife who was clutching a photo of Ritchie. 

"Sorry I'm such a damned bother to you Father," Ritchie said from the kitchen doorway. 

"Richard!" Sarah said tears spilling down her face as she hugged her son who looked very guilty. "You had me so worried!" 

"I'm sorry Mom… I got caught up with something…"

"You mean at that bar?" Rick asked pouring a cup of coffee for himself. 

"For your information, _Father_, I've only been there once since you hit me over it!" Ritchie said harshly before pulling away from his mother and going upstairs to his room. 

"See, he's probably been there this whole time…"

"Rick… He smelled like that expensive cologne that they sell at the store I work at on the weekends…" Sarah whispered. "It costs four hundred a bottle… and they're very small…"

"What are you saying, he's been out stealing?"

"No… But no one at that club would have that kind of money, and you know the security of Spica's Emporium… No one can get in there to steal…"

"SO what are you suggesting Sarah?" Rick asked before Ritchie opened the door. 

"I'm sorry did I interrupt another conversation about how I'm sick and twisted because I'm gay?" he asked his father. 

"Ritchie, darling, please… Show your father some respect…." Sarah whispered. 

"Next time I'll come in and bow, Mom…" Ritchie said sarcastically before slamming the door shut followed by the front door. Sarah sighed. 

"Rick… Stop doing this to our son!"

----------------------------Flashback---------------------------

"I've got to head home…"

"Why?" 

"Mom's probably really panicked by now… I don' want to give her a heart attack or something," Ritchie said putting his few belongings back in his bag. Arms slid around him and pulled him back into a firm embrace causing him to drop them. 

"Please tell me you're coming back…" Virgil whispered against his neck. Ritchie arched his neck, showing off the very tempting white skin as well as a pulsing vein under that tempting skin. Virgil placed one kiss there before turning his attention more towards Ritchie's face. He didn't want to loose control and, because of it, loose Ritchie.

"Of course I am… You've given me this feeling that I can't describe… I have to come back…" Ritchie said leaning in for a kiss. 

"You can wait a little longer can't you?" Virgil asked as one of his hands slid carefully under Ritchie's shirt to find a nipple and tease it. 

"I'll be back in a few days," Ritchie said frowning as he pulled Virgil's hand from under his shirt and laced their fingers. 

"Too long, but if that's your wish so be it," Virgil said kissing each of Ritchie's fingers before kissing the palm. 

"I'm sure I'll see you around, right?" Ritchie asked in his once again optimistic voice. 

"I think I'll see more of you, but you might see me… Just look in the shadows… I never liked to be around a lot of people," the mocha teen explained. 

Right before Ritchie left Virgil had grabbed his hand and pulled him into one last goodbye kiss, slipping something on his wrist. 

"What?"

"It's supposed to protect the one who wears it," Virgil whispered against Ritchie's red lips. "Just keep it… Use it as a reminder of me or something…"

"Thank you Virgil," the blonde whispered kissing Virgil's cheek. He felt something like a pinch near his ear. Figuring it was like a love bite since it was followed by a kiss, he smiled slightly not knowing he was marked as the property of a vampire. 

-------------------------------

"Ritchie! Glad you could come again," said a boy his age that hugged him before pulling back quickly and staring at the bite mark. "Did you get laid?" he asked excitedly. 

"Come off it," Ritchie said with a grin. "I didn't get laid I just met someone is all…"

"Really?" asked a girl who had her hand in another girl's back pocket. Said girl had her arms wound tightly around the waist of the one with her hand in her pocket. 

"Yeah… I think he's new in town," Ritchie said taking a seat at a table. "So someone fill me in."

"Well, he's still playing hard to get," said the teen that had hugged Ritchie with a pout.

"We keep telling you Pietro," said the darker of the two girls. 

"That he's not sure if you're like, messing with his head or something ya know?" asked the slightly pale brunette. 

"Kitty, please, no more like ya know comments," Ritchie said with a groan. "I get enough with Frieda."

"That's right, Kitten… He has that girl chasing him," Kitty's girlfriend said with a snicker.

"Tabby!"

"What?"

"Anyway," Ritchie said turning back to Pietro who responded with a fake sob-fest on Ritchie's shoulder making the blonde look rather uncomfortable and lost, seeing as Pietro had a 'thing' for him but it wasn't reciprocated. Kitty and Tabitha were getting a kick out of it. 

The person to whom a watching pair of eyes belonged to wasn't as thrilled when the paler arms of Pietro latched tightly onto what was marked now as his property. They narrowed dangerously but he kept his anger in check because soon Ritchie was laughing along with this group and shoving the boy off him.

 Ritchie was lying on his back in the room he was borrowing from Kitty's aunt and uncle. They were the place that their little group stayed when they got together since they lived in Dakota and were comfortable with the groups' choice in lifestyle. 

"Come on Ritchie," Tabby said from the door. "Food time!"

"I'm not that hungry… Is it okay if I stay here?"

"Of course it is son!" Kitty's uncle said.

"Thanks Mr. Pryde," Ritchie said as he was left alone to think. 

========Dream Memory=========

"Richard… I'm sorry, but I can't stay here with you for much longer…" said someone who looked like Virgil only this was taking place in medieval Europe. 

"Then take me with you!" he demanded. Ritchie was seeing this through Richard's eyes. 

"Richard, there are rules… It's just not accepted…"

"What's not accepted?" Richard demanded tears forming. The Virgil look-a-like wiped his tears away. "Daniel please!"

"Richard… I love you too much to make you go through what I do," Daniel said desperately trying to get Richard to understand. 

"If you loved me, you'd let me stay with you!"

"Richard I'm a vampire! I can't turn you! It would be as if something were stabbing through my heart through the rest of eternity! You should just forget about me, love… It's what best…"

"NO!" Richard said latching tightly on to Daniel. 

"If I turn you Richard, the only way out of being a vampire is DEATH! I can't watch you die! 

"That's why you're leaving me? You don't want to turn me and thus you'd be forced to watch me grow old and die? Daniel! You promised me forever with you!"

"And you will always be in my heart… You know that my father has his rules for a reason… You're a mortal-"

"Then turn me Daniel!" Richard said pulling off his shirt and pulling his lover on top of him and lightly kissing along his demonic lover's sensitive neck. 

"Richard!"

"Please Daniel… I don't even want to try to go back to living without you by my side…"

"Richard…. God Richard," Daniel whispered kissing roughly all over the area that concealed the vein. 

"Daniel… Take me before you… Before you turn me," Richard said pulling his dark lover into a kiss. 

"As my master wishes," Daniel had whispered seductively into Richard's ear. 

========= 

"Ah!" Ritchie sat up panting and drenched in cold sweat. Virgil watched from a tree through the blonde's window. Pietro dashed in through the connecting bathroom and over to the blonde who had tears streaming down his face. 

"It's all right! I promise! It's all right," Pietro whispered to him rocking the terrified boy back and forth. Ritchie outlined what had happened and Pietro's first reaction was, "Well Hell! If my lover in a past life was a vampire I'd be pretty freaked out myself!"

"What do you mean in a past life?"

"You kept saying it was so real and stuff… Evan was into that kind of stuff when were younger… I guess when I figured out that I killed myself because I couldn't be with him in a past life, I retained everything he ever said on it…"

"You killed yourself over Evan before?"

"Amazing huh?" Pietro asked sitting on the bed resting against the wall. "I had stabbed myself before throwing myself into the garden my balcony over looked. We'd been together, but I was to be married the day after I killed myself... Evan, he well, he went insane I think… I mean, I dug up the records on the family and a month later they killed Evan because he went insane and tried to kill my fiancée who was there in grieving."

"Probably yelling the entire time that it was her fault you were dead?"

"Yeah…"

"So. Who was this mysterious lover?" Pietro asked eyes lighting up like a schoolgirl receiving gossip. 

Ritchie blushed. "I don't know… he looked like someone I know… But his name was Daniel…" Virgil's eyes widened. He'd had several lovers over the years. The one he loved was Richard. All others were so he had a warm body in his bed, some only for a night…

"Wow… So, tell me some details!"

"It stopped after he said he'd take me…" Ritchie said blushing harder when he realized what he said. Pietro was off in a lala land. "I'm going back to sleep…"

"Of course! Tell me about more dreams!" Pietro said before leaving. 

--------------------

Daniel had gone home after hearing that he was in one of Ritchie's past lives. "Damn… My luck I find one who has memories," he muttered pacing his room. A glinting something caught his eye near the floor of his bed. He reached down and picked it up. There was a picture of Ritchie and the people he'd been with along with another African boy and four other people. All but Pietro, Ritchie, and the African boy were with a significant other. 

"Emanuel?" he murmured remembering the boy who was shipped out just after he was turned. He was killed about a year after… Evan must be the reincarnation of his cousin Emanuel. 

"Found something that interests you, young Master Daniel?"

"Ishtar, you were around when I was turned right? I mean you were always with the master…"

"I've been with the master alternately for many a hundred years, yes…"

"Then, do you remember when I was turned?"

"You were terrified, young master… Of Master Duzell and of yourself for at least a month… You only wanted to be able to say good bye to your family, which was partially granted. That slave trader bought your cousin… You saw him ship off and yelled after him. He was allowed to yell goodbye to you before he was dragged away. You turned and cried so he couldn't see. Master Erick comforted you…"

"Doesn't this look like Emanuel except blonde?" Daniel asked showing the picture to the cat. 

"It is him! The aura is captured, not like stripped from them but it was frozen in time like the picture…" Ishtar explained as Daniel smiled. 

"Then my cousin is alive again!" Ishtar smiled sadly to the boy. Most of the family was orphaned when Duzell turned them or were turned by another member of the vampire family but this boy had a sister, father, and cousin… The poor thing many times wanted to see them but pictures were not invented yet and now that they were, a picture with his Ritchie with the reincarnation of his cousin made him happy and Ishtar wasn't going to take that away from him. Ishtar leapt back down to the floor and left the boy to reminisce of old times and soon fall asleep. He could go about three days without getting a bite and usually waited until he was frigid and starting to weaken before giving in and leaving to hunt. That only happened after Richard…

================Dream Memory=============

"Richard… I'm sorry, but I can't stay here with you for much longer…" Daniel said quietly to his lover. Somewhere in the back of Daniel's mind he was praying for this dream to end now so he didn't have to remember. 

"Then take me with you!" he demanded. 

"Richard, there are rules… It's just not accepted…"

"What's not accepted?" Richard demanded tears forming. The Virgil look-a-like wiped his tears away. "Daniel please!"

"Richard… I love you too much to make you go through what I do," Daniel said desperately trying to get Richard to understand. 

"If you loved me, you'd let me stay with you!"

"Richard I'm a vampire! I can't turn you! It would be as if something were stabbing through my heart through the rest of eternity! You should just forget about me, love… It's what best…"

"NO!" Richard said latching tightly on to Daniel. 

"If I turn you Richard, the only way out of being a vampire is DEATH! I can't watch you die! 

"That's why you're leaving me? You don't want to turn me and thus you'd be forced to watch me grow old and die? Daniel! You promised me forever with you!"

"And you will always be in my heart… You know that my father has his rules for a reason… You're a mortal-"

"Then turn me Daniel!" Richard said pulling off his shirt and pulling his lover on top of him and lightly kissing along his demonic lover's sensitive neck. 

"Richard!"

"Please Daniel… I don't even want to try to go back to living without you by my side…"

"Richard…. God Richard," Daniel whispered kissing roughly all over the area that concealed the vein. 

"Daniel… Take me before you… Before you turn me," Richard said pulling his dark lover into a kiss. 

"As my master wishes," Daniel had whispered seductively into Richard's ear. Richard shivered to his core as Daniel pulled his own shirt off and was leaning down to kiss him when the light of torches filtered through the window and shouts could be heard. 

"In there! The tracks of the Demon end here at the Lord's son's house!" someone yelled. 

"Swiftly then! Before it kills the young lord!" shouted another. 

"Daniel, they'll kill you!" Richard said at the feral growl emitting from his lover's throat, as he stood ready to kill anyone who dared touch his lover. 

"I can't leave you here now," Daniel said touching Richard's face softly. 

"Daniel you must! Get to Duzell; make sure they don't find your tracks… I'll be there by sundown tomorrow and you can turn me then," the blonde insisted. 

"Richard…" Daniel breathed pulling the blonde to him again and kissing him deeply conveying love that would last forever. Richard engrossed by his lover and the kiss, carelessly allowed himself to forget about the mob outside his doors. 

"The last room is the Young Master's!" said one of the men from the village.

"Open it! Quickly make haste before something tragic befalls him!"

Richard and Daniel leapt apart. Daniel grabbed his shirt and was about to disappear out the window when the door was burst down. 

"Kill the demon! Now farmer!" was yelled and before Daniel could blink Richard had stepped between him and the oncoming arrow.

"Richard!" Daniel cried dashing to his side, sobbing as his vision was tinting red with rage.

"Daniel…" Richard whispered touching his face with a slight smile while the townsmen were amazed. They'd just killed the young Lord, not the demon. "I'm sorry… I guess we don't get forever." Richard offered him a weak smile. 

"No, Richard please… Please don't… God above take anything you wish but don't take my love…" Soon though Duzell was pulling an enraged young vampire off the townsmen who had killed its lover. He had arrived only ten minutes too late to revive and save Richard. The vampire king was carrying home his youngest son who was completely broken and sobbing. He handed him off to some of the others to take care of and calm. Daniel refused and lashed out several times each just less violent than the last. He still lashed out on occasion only when the memories of Richard ran strong and the wrong words were said.  

=======

"RICHARD!" Daniel sat up calling out for his love. In their own rooms, Duzell, Catherine, Isabelle, Takato, and Jenrya each looked up and sighed. He had to watch his lover perish before his eyes and one could only become numb from emotion to get over that…

Across the city, Ritchie sat up in bed and breathed out quietly into the wind of the night, "Daniel?"


	3. With Danger Ahead, and an empty space in...

Isabelle strode proudly into Spica's Emporium and was again selecting various things from the unknown generation gypsy. Isabelle spoke with Spica herself often and they would give each other fortune readings on Saturdays. 

Isabelle though today asked specifically if the young gypsy had anything on soul mates. 

"Soul mates, Isabelle?" Spica asked thinking. 

"Yes, it is for my adoptive brother… He, has become enthralled with it," Isabelle explained. 

"Maybe, Is'belle. Perhaps… Come, back here is where the books are kept." 

Sarah watched out of the corner of her eye. She knew that Spica often traveled and when this Isabelle came in for the first time to this branch, her employer was ecstatic. They were old friends Spica had told her. Isabelle left with two books and a basket full of her normal 'supplies'.

Sarah was worried about her son and was questioned by her boss that afternoon as they were closing. 

"What troubles you Sarah? You have a darkness following you," Spica said.

"My son came out to us a couple of weeks ago… My husband didn't take it well… Ritchie's avoided coming home since. I just worry so much about my baby…"

"Sarah, isn't your baby as you put it, almost seventeen?"

"Yes but, he is still and will always be my baby," Sarah replied. 

"Here," Spica said pulling out a pouch and putting a crystal and a few herbs in it before tying it up. "Take this, and pray. It should bring you luck and understanding of your son…"

"Thank you Spica… Thank you very much…"

==============

Ritchie was sitting at the track watching the track team run before suddenly he felt as if someone were watching him. He looked over to the large oak and saw Virgil standing there smiling at him. He grabbed his newly packed bag and jogged over. "Virgil… hey," Ritchie said blushing slightly. 

"Hello Ritchie…" Virgil said with a slight smile. "Weren't you practicing for this when we met?" Virgil asked nodded to the track team. 

"Yeah, but this time when they turned me down I figured I'd give it a rest till next year." Ritchie looked unhappy at the comment. 

"Why do they deny you? You're talented as a runner."

"Thanks," Ritchie said blushing more, glancing at the team before locking eyes with one of the star athletes who glared at him and cracked his knuckles. "I guess I'm not fast enough," Ritchie said rapidly turning away from the team. 

"Does he threaten you often?"

"It's not that big of a deal Virgil…"

"I don't want some lowlife idiot threatening you, Ritchie… You don't deserve it," Virgil said taking Ritchie's hand. "Come, let's go home…"

"Okay," Ritchie smiled tightening his grip on Virgil's hand. 

Ishtar sighed as she watched them. "Do not worry so, Ishtar," said a voice as a young woman picked her up. "You as well as the Family (this is sounding kinda godfather-ish) shall see that this is not something that could be stopped, nor can it be stopped," she said. Ishtar looked up at the young woman holding her. She was distantly related to Isabelle's friend Spica. Only this woman chose to follow the clan distracting the hunters from their prey then slipping away into the darkness.

"I know Camellia… I know but this is just horrible… What if something happens to Ritchie? Will Daniel get over it?"

"Did he ever get over Richard?"

"I see your point…"

--------------------------------

Not too long after Ritchie and Virgil had arrived at the large house someone, a cousin Virgil had said, came and insisted on speaking to the dark boy privately. Ritchie had stayed in the room waiting for Virgil to get back. He looked out of one of the windows into a large garden. Living on the edge of Dakota obviously had some perks. His eyes followed a cat playing in the flowers before leaping into the arms a tall feminine man. He looked up and locked eyes with Ritchie who blushed a deep crimson and stepped backwards letting the curtains fall back into place. 

--------------------------

"Do you realize what is going on here?" a dark haired youth asked Virgil. 

"What do you mean 'Duke'?" Virgil asked using his fingers for the quotation marks. 

"Hey, lay off the street name okay?" Duke asked glaring at him. 

"Well then what is going on? And if it's that important why aren't you or Camellia talking to Father?"

"Because it's about you…"

"Again… What do you mean?" Virgil asked glaring at him. 

"Camellia sensed it first… Someone is on to you Virgil… Or soon will be… You have to stay away from that blonde you're becoming attached to," Duke told him solemnly. 

"Over my dead body," Daniel said baring his fangs causing Duke to sigh loudly. 

"Look. I love Camellia and if it weren't for her my abilities would have gone on being some cheap trick in a game. If this is what she wants me to do I'll do it… I'm trying to help this clan Virgil… And there is something about the blonde that could cause all of us to be exposed!" Duke told him. 

"Listen to me Otogi! I don't care who you think you're helping but I'm falling in love with Ritchie and I'm not going to let him go at any cost! This time, I'm going to protect my lover till my very last breath!" Virgil seethed. 

"He reminds you that much of Richard does he?"

"Shut up! Speak not of things you don't understand and that is definitely something you don't understand nor do you know anything of!"

"Virgil… Don't take my warning seriously. That's fine by me, but! Take caution…" Otogi said before leaving.

Daniel sighed raking a hand through his hair before dashing back upstairs to Ritchie. 

"Virgil!" Ritchie blinked at the somewhat upset look in Virgil's eyes. "What's wrong, V?" Ritchie asked as Virgil sat down on the bed placing his head in his hands. 

"I'm not sure I want to talk about it Ritchie… I'm sorry…" The blonde smiled sadly to himself before crawling across the bed and placing his hands on Virgil's shoulders giving them a gentle massage. 

"That's okay… if you don't want to talk to me about it. I just worry about you… because I really care about Virgil…" Ritchie said soothingly placing kisses along Virgil's neck and shoulders. Ritchie began to wonder why this whole scenario felt so familiar, as if it had happened, while Daniel wondered why this was happening almost the same way that things had happened before he told Richard about what he was… If the two teens had sex within two days of this…Daniel was going to have to seriously talk to Otogi and Camellia about if Ritchie might actually be Richard's reincarnation. 

Virgil began to shiver under Ritchie's touch. He turned his head and captured Ritchie's lips in a kiss, which Ritchie hungrily returned. 

"God Ritchie…" Virgil said turning around quickly and pinning the blonde to the bed kissing him deeply while trailing one of his hands over the blonde's chest while the other was tightly intertwined with the other's.

Ritchie gasped at how natural this all felt. Usually when another guy cornered him something didn't feel right as if the only thing there was physical attraction. But, with knowing that there was definitely something between him and Virgil, it felt like something he'd done for so long, but hadn't been able to in what felt like almost a thousand years or something. 

"Ritchie," Virgil growled out claiming Ritchie's mouth with his own mapping it out and memorizing a taste that he unknowingly longed for. 

Ritchie pulled his hand from Virgil's and began to work the other's shirt up and off. Virgil complied before working on Ritchie's shirt then attacking the creamy skin of his love's chest. 

"Virgil!" Ritchie said squeezing his eyes shut and arching towards the darker teen. Virgil understood Ritchie's unspoken plea. The blonde was still unsure of things so he pulled the blonde tightly into his arms and started kissing behind the blonde's ears, which he found was a sensitive spot by Ritchie's giggling and squirming.

------------

"Camellia, Otogi, what brings you here?" Duzell asked looking up from his scrolls. 

"It's about Daniel…" Camellia said looking down. 

"A vision?"

"A strong one," Otogi said quietly. "It wiped her out for over an hour."

~'_Daniel, please… Come to my study…now.'~_

_~'But, Father Duzell,'~_ he started through the telepathic link that the clan shared. 

~_'NOW!'~_ Daniel opened his eyes to see Ritchie in a happy sleep. He kissed the blonde's forehead and got up pulling on a robe and going to see his father. 

--------------

"WHAT?!" Ritchie was awoken by Virgil's voice. Only Virgil wasn't by him.

---

"You heard me Daniel, please… I can't bear the thought of watching you die!" Camellia said her arms wrapped around herself. 

"I'm not leaving Ritchie!"

"Daniel!"

"NEVER!" he yelled. "I love him Father! Please! Don't tell me you agree with this madness!"

"It's not madness… I've left lovers too…"

"I won't leave him!"

"Is this still about Richard?"

"FATHER!"

"Look, Daniel… If we can find out what about the blonde would cause your death, such as if someone follows him without his knowledge and finds you, that would be different and we'd be able to protect you both but we don't know right now!"

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!" the young vampire said tears stinging his eyes. He was enraged about this. "I LOVE HIM! I'm not going to leave him!"

---

Ritchie heard everything that Virgil said. He was fighting his own tears. Ritchie quickly dressed and threw a few things back into his bag and headed down the stairs. At the bottom waiting by the door was a teen, a bit older than Virgil with blue hair, and a Chinese symbol tattooed on his arm. 

"I take it that you're Ritchie," he said silver eyes locking with Ritchie's making him uneasy. 

"Yeah…"

"I'm Lee… One of Virgil's brothers… You can't leave him like this…" Lee said still blocking the door. 

"I never left him," Ritchie said softly. Lee blinked and then understood. 

"I'll tell him you're sorry…"

"I can't stay if I'll cause a rift in your family…" Ritchie said. "Goddess knows that I have one the size of St. Andres in mine…" he murmured. 

"Be careful… Don't ask why, just be damned careful," Lee said when Ritchie gave him a weird look. Lee opened the door for the blonde and they both shared a small smile. Not even ten minutes later Daniel came down the stairs and seeing as how the only other person in the house was Lee, his elder brother got a slap across the face. 

"What did you do with Ritchie?" he demanded. 

"He said he was sorry," Lee said casting a glance to the door. 

"He…. Ritchie left?" Virgil asked looking about like he was going to hyperventilate. And well, he did. Lee tried to calm his brother down but he was about to go out and kill something if that poor thing couldn't give him information on Ritchie's whereabouts. Lee did the only thing he could at that time; he bit his brother and pinched a nerve causing the irrational one to fall asleep in his arms. Lee sighed and a tear ran down his cheek. 

---

"RITCHIE! Where have you been?" Tabitha asked pulling the other blonde into the house and setting the sobbing boy down as Evan (who had come in that morning), Pietro, and Kitty started trying to calm him down at once. Pietro hugged Ritchie and whispered that things were okay and that his boy would forgive him, he could just tell. The blonde boy looked at the ashen tress teen oddly before hugging him back tightly. Evan rubbed Ritchie's back as he cried and Kitty went to run him a nice hot bath.

_'Virgil can't forgive me now… I LEFT HIM!'_ it seemed to just sink into his brain and he sobbed harder. 


	4. Author Note next chapter will be soon pr...

This chapter is an authors note. One of the reviewers made a valid point! Some of you might not know my extra characters and things can get a bit confusing with the two names per vampire thing. SO! This chapter is a handy dandy guide you can use! ^_^  
  
Jou: Daniel is Virgil's REAL name. See he's a vampire and he was born with the name Daniel. While in Dakota now, he has taken the name Virgil so he's 'undercover'. 

Otogi: And Duzell is the Vampire king in the manga series Vampire Game. As a human again ^^;; 

Yama: Ritchie or Richard as his first name really is, was Daniel's lover Richard in a past life. 

Dai: Spica, she's an OC loosely based on Spica from Zodiac PI. 

Takepon: Kitty is Shadowcat from X-Men: Evolution. Her girlfriend, Tabitha a.k.a. Tabby is the crazy blonde one with the bombs. She can't remember her codename. Pietro is Quicksilver from the same show and so is Evan who is Spyke and Daniel's cousin in a past life. That's all the X-Men people. 

Kyo: Jenrya the Japanese way of saying Jianliang is from Digimon. His other name, Lee, is what was used here in America. He's from season three, as is Takato! Who assumes the name Daisuke and the through behind that is Dai suki means 'I like you' roughly. That is if she remembers correctly. And she thinks it's impossible to hate Takato. There you go. The Digimon 3 crew. 

Draco: Ishtar is the name of the princess in Vampire Game. All Ishtar is, is a talking cat. 

Pietro: Otogi or Duke, is Otogi or Duke from Yu-Gi-Oh!. He's just there to help the Vampires out. 

Toya (author's creation): And all the others are OC. Yep. OCs out the wazoo!  
  
That should be it. If I missed someone or something I'll put it in an author's note ^_^ That is, one that's attached to a chapter.


	5. Why did you go? And some lovey moments

AN| Crazi: **looks over papers** Nope, still don't own Static Shock or anything else…

Jou: Please read and review! ^_^

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1"Daniel?" a small voice asked. No answer so he opened the door to see it much darker than usual. "Daniel… Jenrya IS sorry… and Ritchie said he was too…" He flicked the lights on and sighed. On the bed was Daniel, spread out on his stomach, looking like he hadn't slept in days, though the brunette Japanese boy didn't doubt that he hadn't slept at all. And, since he was in his boxers and looked so much more pale than usual. He hadn't eaten…

"What's the point anymore?" Daniel asked sound muffled in the bed sheets. "He left of his own free will and took my soul with him…"

"Daniel…"

"Takato…"

Takato sighed and walked over and pulled the boy off the bed. They were about the same age actually. "I'm not letting you sit here like this!" He threw clothes at him from the closet. 

"What are you doing?"

"We're going to find Ritchie and figure out what's really going on!" Takato declared. Daniel hurriedly got ready. 

--------------------------------------------------

"Ritchie, come on man! How often do I get to come to Dakota?" Evan asked sitting next to the blonde. 

"Rarely, if ever," was he muffled response. "If you don't mind, I'm trying to suffocate myself and put an end to my misery…"

"Ritchie," the African blonde started. 

"I LEFT HIM EVAN!" Ritchie said harshly. "There's nothing that can make that better… I left. And all I left him was my heart though he didn't know it!"

"Richard! Get up!" Evan snapped sitting him up. Pietro came in with fresh clothes and started to dress him. 

"What are you guys doing?" Ritchie asked slightly panicked. 

"Making you un-depressed," Pietro explained. "We're going out and trying to run into him at all places that it would seem logical. Like where you first met him and stuff…"

"But…" Ritchie began before the two drug him out of the house and towards Dakota Union High's track. 

--------------

"Okay!" Takato said hands on his hips while standing under a nice and old oak tree on the side of the track of the high school Ritchie attended. "You met, here!" he said with a smile getting into his adoptive brother's face and grinning like a fool. 

"Yes, Daisuke, we did…" Virgil ground out between his teeth. (AN: Dai suki means 'I like you' as far as I remember… So I thought Daisuke would be good for Takato… who can look at him and go, "I hate you so damned bad…" NO ONE! ^_^) Takato, or Daisuke, seemed completely unfazed. 

Walking across the track was a very depressed looking Ritchie with Evan and Pietro. Both trying to cheer him up. 

"So mystery guy just popped up while he was at the track late one night," Evan was saying. Takato looked up at the trio. 

"That's right and our boy here grew up so fast and was practically living with him," Pietro answered. 

"And I'm going to kill you both, use your feeble souls as an offering to the god of death and asked to be taken under his wing…" Ritchie said sarcastically but with a hint of truth. The boy thought life was pointless and hopeless with out Virgil. "I don't deserve forgiveness."

"That's for us to find out!" Pietro said with a rather girly giggle. Evan gave him a look. 

"Seriously man, you can't live like this!"

"Then why live?"

"RICHARD FOLEY!" they both yelled at him while he blinked looking slightly taken aback. 

"What?" he squeaked. 

"Ritchie?" Virgil breathed getting up and ignoring his brother while heading over to the blonde who was conveniently facing away from him. 

"God damn Ritchie… If I hadn't known you for so many years, I'd say right now you were in an unhealthy relationship… But maybe you really do need him," Pietro said shaking his head. His blue eyes however, were focused on Evan before a dark hand reached out and caught Ritchie's hand. Both of his companions were ready to fight if need be but Ritchie was staring at him intently as if waiting judgement. 

"Why Ritchie?" Virgil whispered to him. 

"I couldn't stay Virgil… I couldn't… I heard you arguing with your father… I could tell that it was about me and I couldn't cause a problem in your family…" Ritchie was blabbering. Before being pulled tightly against Virgil both of them crying silently clinging to each other. 

"Hi!" Takato said popping up from behind Virgil. 

Evan and Pietro jumped. "Who the hell are you?" Pietro demanded gripping onto Evan. 

"I'm Daisuke! Virgil's brother," he said extending his hand. "I think we all were thinking alike!" 

"What do you mean?" Evan asked unconsciously letting his arm lock around Pietro's thin waist. 

"We all brought them to the place they met to hopefully find the other and the reason for all this. Virgil wasn't eating…"

"Neither was Ritchie," Pietro said, reaching a hand out. "Pietro… And this is Evan."

"Nice to meet you!" Daisuke chirped shaking their hands. He turned to his brother. "Virgil… We need to get home before Father! If he finds out…" he trailed off.

"Right," Virgil said not letting go of Ritchie. He kissed the blonde's temple and hugged him tighter while Ritchie clung to him for dear life. Takato rolled his eyes.  And they called him and Lee-chan sappy… Sappy his ass compared to this…

"Virgil!" Daisuke was bouncing now. Obviously something had happened and that made the boy jumpy… he really didn't want to get caught for some reason. 

"I'll see you tonight," Virgil whispered in Ritchie's ear. Ritchie nodded. Whenever Virgil made a promise, he kept it… He just KNEW that he would see Virgil tonight somehow and there wasn't anything he wanted more at the moment. Daisuke pulled Virgil away as Ritchie stood feeling cold without arms around. When he could no longer see the duo he turned to Pietro and Evan… And raised a questioning eyebrow and desperately trying to hold back a snicker. 

"What?" Evan asked. Ritchie started laughing heartily. Evan and Pietro looked at each other, blushed, and stepped apart stuttering. 

"You guys looked better before," Ritchie said as they started towards the mall. 

"You know what Evan? You're pretty warm…" Pietro said in a sly kind of way. Evan blushed and grabbed the ashen tressed teen, pulling him close. 

"Really? Because you sure do fit in my arms just right so I don't mind keeping you warm…" the blonde African-American countered. 

"Oh please just kiss and be done with it!" Ritchie said groaning at the 'rivalry' to his left. The sudden squeak turned moan made him glance back and sweat drop as a blush stained his face. "I DIDN'T SAY MAKE OUT IN PUBLIC!" Ritchie said exasperated.

*****

"Daniel looks so much better now," Jianliang said looking over at Takato who was listening to someone called Hilary Duff.

"I know!" Takato chirped.

"What did you do ai ren?"

"I took him out to talk to Ritchie… He feels better and quiet frankly I don't want to see them made into a Romeo and Juliet," Takato said flipping through his manga magazine.

"Ai ren! Father is wanting to forbid that!" Jianliang said getting on their bed and pulling the smaller one to him. 

"He wanted to forbid us as well, Jenrya…"

"I know," Jianliang said smiling as Takato, after soo many years, could not pronouce his hand correctly. "Now though, let's get us some sleep before we go out tonight…"

Takato smiled as he leaned back into Jianliang's arms, snuggling close as they lay on the bed. 

"I love you, Jianliang," Takato murmured looking into silver like eyes. 

"I love you too, you genki little thing," Jianliang said into Takato's rich brown hair. Takato smiled as he fell asleep, safe in the haven of his lover and sire's arms. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
AN| Otogi: She lost the translation for 'ai ren'. *snickers as Crazi is tearing apart her desk muttering 'it was right HERE!'** It's love something. A name for a lover…. Just letting you know….

Takepon: Please review!! 


	6. The Truth is Revealed by accident

Ritchie watched as Kitty pounced on Evan and Pietro when they walked in the door from their 'shopping trip'. 

"You guys are like finally dating?!" she asked excitedly bouncing up and down, dragging the two boys with her from the force of her motion. This was amusing. 

Pietro glares at him. "You TOLD her?" he asks looking hurt. 

"She asked why you weren't here and I told her you were shopping… But NO~O she wouldn't listen to me… So Tabby guessed," the blonde, blue-eyed boy said shrugging as he grinned. Evan and Pietro were subjected to a thorough Question and Answer session hosted by Kitty. Ritchie was listening, well half-listening, to what was going on before dismissing himself to his room with a yelled promise of 'you will be next Ritchie Foley! And you little boyfriend too!' from Kitty. He closed his door and sat on his bed looking out the window before falling asleep.

---

Virgil snuck out of his house as soon as it was dark. Well, not so much snuck as saying that he was going to eat and his father ACTUALLY believed him! What a day!! He made his way to where he smelled Ritchie's scent and where he could hear his heart beating. He stopped and watched as Ritchie's four friends left the house giggling and laughing and clinging to the person they were with. Virgil melded in with the shadows and made his way to under Ritchie's window. He picked up a few rocks and started to gently throw them at the blonde's window. 

Ritchie woke to the tapping sound and walked to the window. That causing Virgil to stop with the tossing of the pebbles for fear he'd hit the person whom he loved. Ritchie opened the pane and looked down smiling at Virgil. "Virgil!"

"You coming down? Or do I have to shimmy up the drain pipe?" the darker boy asked as quietly as he could and still permit the blonde to hear him. 

"Give me one minute!" Ritchie said closing the window and carefully running through the house, pleading he needed to walk, to Mr. Pryde.  He opened the door and there was Virgil waiting for him, leaning against the lamppost. 

"It was a minute twenty but I guess I'll let it slide," he said playfully as he pulled the blonde to him and placing a kiss on his lips. 

"What are we going to do tonight?" Ritchie asked, his arms lacing together around Virgil's neck. 

"Don't care as long as I've got you," Virgil said dipping down and kissing along the blonde's neck. He'd had a quick meal before coming to the blonde, wanting nothing more than to be able to control the urge and not hurt him. 

"My house is empty," Ritchie said in a whisper to him, a hum in his throat to signify he was enjoying Virgil's ministrations. "We can go there…"

"You sure?" Virgil asked him quietly.

"If you're nervous about my parents coming home we can go somewhere else… I-" Ritchie paused trying to think of how to say it and not confuse the other boy and not to make him unsure and leave him alone. "I'm yours…"

Virgil's head snapped back from where it had been. He stared at Ritchie's eyes that showed he thought he'd said something wrong and was about to apologize when Virgil placed a finger on the blonde's lips. "You sure you want that?" he asked trailing his finger over the blonde's face tracing the features. 

"Yes. Being without you tore me apart, Virgil! I don't ever want to feel that again! It was the WORST thing that has happened to me… and I mean that…" Ritchie was going to say more but Virgil's mouth on his in a possessive manner stopped all comments from coming.

-------

Ritchie snuggled into Virgil's warmth. They were at a hill that overlooked the city, and they were the only souls there. He was content. He missed just lying in Virgil's arms. 

Meanwhile, Daniel was not as content as Ritchie. The blonde needed to know what was going on in his life, so he could chose if he wanted to be a part of it… 

Ritchie noticed Virgil's contemplative nature. "V… What's wrong?" he asked blinking up at the African teen. 

"Hmm… Don't worry about it…"

"But it's really bothering you…" Ritchie said before Virgil's head snapped up. "What is it?"

"Thought I heard something is all…"

"Like what?"

"It was just the wind…" Ritchie seemed to accept this but Virgil could smell the fear on the teen in his arms. And it increased when footsteps sounded on the gravel trail. Ritchie and Virgil were quick to make themselves hidden. Only problem was that Ritchie's friendship bracelet that his friend Frieda had made him caught and fell near where they had been. It wasn't until the figure picked it up that Ritchie noticed it was missing and cursed inwardly. 

"Richard! Richard, I know you're here! Where are you, you wretched brat?!" the man called. Ritchie buried his face into Virgil's shoulder as Virgil's eyes narrowed on the man and wished he'd fall down the hill and hurt himself. "Fine, be a little slut… But don't come home!" With that he left. Virgil rained kisses on Ritchie to let him know it was fine. 

A broken sob came from the blonde's throat. "I'm so sorry Virgil… I didn't want you to hear that…"

"Shh… It's all right… If there weren't so many secrets in my family I'd have you stay with us, that man be damned…" _'Or lunch…' he thought as an after thought._

"I don't want to cause problems in your family Virgil…" Ritchie said as he was pulled closer to the teen. Suddenly, it began to sprinkle. "Damn!" the blonde cursed. 

"Come on! Erick's is closer than the house you're staying in and mine," Virgil said pulling the teen along behind him. Ritchie was lost for a moment until Virgil pulled him into the yard of a Victorian style house and in the front door. "Erick!" Virgil called out as they stood in the door. A door opened and shut upstairs and a tall boy with dark hair and a mildly tan complexion appeared at the top of them in faded jeans and a T-shirt with Japanese writing, or Chinese, Ritchie couldn't tell. 

"He went out, just a few moments ago… To see Duzell, if I remember correctly," he said. "Koibitto! Get some towels! Virgil's here with a friend." 

Ritchie sneezed and then apologized. Virgil giggled, while the taller older teen shook his head. "Virgil, stop dripping on the Oriental rug and get into the downstairs bathroom, both of you…"

"Okay Toya…" Virgil said taking Ritchie's hand and leading him to it. Soon, a teen just taller than Toya came in. He had beautiful purplish eyes and light purple hair with soft features came in with towels. 

"I thought you'd be here sooner or later, Virgil," he said. Virgil looked sheepishly at him while the other teen smiled. "My name is Yuki," he said handing a towel to Ritchie. 

"Ritchie… Ritchie Foley," he said taking the towel with a smile. The two began to dry themselves off. 

"Do I need to get a change of clothes for the both of you? I think we still have a trunk of your jeans and t-shirts here Virgil," Yuki smiled. 

"Yeah, that would be a good idea if you have them…" Virgil said watching as Ritchie shivered in the cold. Yuki nodded and left the room to find them. Virgil pulled Ritchie to him and wrapped his arms around him tightly. "Warmer?" he asked quietly. Ritchie nodded sinking into Virgil's warm embrace. 

Yuki returned a few moments later and gave them the clothes before leaving to let them change. A bright smile was on his face when he saw Ritchie tightly in Virgil's protective embrace. Virgil left a kiss on Ritchie's lips then neck once he was dressed before pulling him from the bathroom. 

"You two are staying here," Toya's voice said from the kitchen. 

"All right," Virgil called back. "Come on… There's a spare room upstairs we can use…" he said smiling and leading Ritchie up the wonderfully carved main staircase. Once in the room Ritchie laid down on the bed smiling at Virgil who disappeared for a moment, probably to put their wet clothes somewhere, before coming in and joining him. 

Ritchie was still pretty cold, though he noticed that Virgil still felt warm. It seemed odd in his mind, but it didn't really bother him. A knock on the door and Toya came in with a tray. "Brought you guys some tea so you can warm up…" he said setting it down on the bedside table. Ritchie caught the look Toya passed to Virgil who looked away with a slight nod before the taller teen left. 

The two sat in silence for the most part. Once Ritchie was asleep, Virgil stepped out the room and was immediately grabbed around the collar by Toya. 

"Do you KNOW what you're doing?!" Toya hissed. 

"Loving him." 

"He's mortal, Daniel," Toya said gently.

"I don't care!"

"You're going to get hurt again, little brother!" 

"I am NOT!" Daniel said tears forming. "This time, he won't die!" he whispered. 

"You talk as if he IS Richard…"

"Something tells me he is…" Daniel said looking away. Toya released his collar and ran a hand through his hair. "Don't you get it? The reason every one is flipping out is because they can sense his soul again… It's got everyone paranoid…"

"And you think that if you tell him again, things will go right back to the way it was?"

"I didn't say that big brother…" Daniel whispered.

"He's still a mortal and this isn't exactly the same world it was!" Toya said as Ritchie woke to an empty bed. He heard Toya's voice and figured Virgil was talking with him. 

"You were once to!"

"As were you but not anymore and that DOES make a difference…" Toya said sternly. 

"Toya, I don't care."

"Daniel!"

"Don't! Don't tell me that you're going to go along with them too!"

"I'm trying to watch out for you, Daniel!"

"You'll end up hurting me, just like then!" Toya paled and stepped back from the glaring Daniel.   
_'Daniel? Isn't that the name of the man I was in love with…the **VAMPIRE** I was in love with in that dream… Pietro said it sounded like a past life…'_ Ritchie thought as he sat up in the bed and listened more intently.

"Daniel… I didn't want you staked."

"Love makes you do crazy things… Like risking EVERYTHING to be with someone…" Daniel cast a look to Yuki's door to prove his point. 

"Yuki didn't want me risking my life to save his…" Toya said.

"You loved him, and risked everything to turn him, Toya… I just want to be with Ritchie…"

"I shouldn't be complaining… This is the happiest we've seen you since before they killed Richard all those hundreds of years ago…"

_'Hundreds of years ago….?'_ Ritchie thought. _'Virgil **IS Daniel!'**_  
"Then don't complain, just let me be happy. Duzell isn't allowing me such… So let me stay with Ritchie while I can before he completely forbids it…" Daniel was pleading with Toya. "You know what it feels like… Jainliang knows how it feels to almost be forbidden to have one you love… Takato was willing, MORE than willing but Duzell still wanted to forbid them!"

"I don't want you and Richard forbidden… Yuki and I hope you find someone who you can love like you loved him and he'll love you the same way…" Toya whispered. "Get some sleep. Morning comes soon and I know how the sun annoys you…" With that he went towards Yuki's door. Daniel sighed and opened the door to join Ritchie in slumber only to see Ritchie staring at him an odd look in his eyes. 

"Ritchie?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"


	7. Truth and Memories of a Young Servent Na...

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Ritchie asked again when Virgil looked away. 

"I didn't know how, but I was going to!" Virgil said looking back at Ritchie. 

"When?" Ritchie asked him tears forming in his eyes. "When were you planning on telling me that you were a vampire, **Daniel**?"

"Please don't say my name with hatred…" Daniel whispered. 

"I don't hate you. I'm angered that you didn't tell me!"

"What?! Would you have believed me?"

"It would explain the shadows and lack of sunlight exposure."

"So that proves it to you?"

"Daniel…" Ritchie said softly getting up and placing a hand on Daniel's cheek, gently. Daniel gripped the hand and searched Ritchie's eyes. "I still love you… I'm just hurt you didn't tell me… It's a little thing, but still a little important…"

Daniel nodded, tears forming in his own eyes as he pulled Ritchie to him. "Gods, Ritchie… You have no idea how long I've waited for someone like you…"

"Hundreds of years…" Ritchie whispered against Virgil's neck making the vampire shiver. 

"Ritchie…" Daniel breathed tilting the blonde's head so he could kiss him again. 

When they pulled back Ritchie looked up at him with a smile, and Daniel couldn't help but think that, it looked like Richard's smile. "Daniel?"

"What is it?" he asked still staring intently at Ritchie's face.

"Make me yours," he whispered. Daniel shook his head. 

"I can't, Ritchie… I want to, but I can't…"

"Daniel, love me, that's all I ask.  Love me enough to mark as yours completely… You did once, so forget about rules saying that you can't love, and just love me… I know you love me, so just do that…" Ritchie told him. Daniel's mouth sealed over his and he felt himself be pushed backwards onto the bed. Ritchie didn't know how they got their clothes off because they were so engrossed in kissing each other, but they got them off and let their hands roam over each other's bodies. 

"Are you sure about this Ritchie?" Daniel asked him one last time. Ritchie was panting as he looked at the teen that was kneeling between his opened legs. He swallowed. 

"More sure than I've been about anything…" he whispered roughly. Daniel leaned down and kissed him before entering him. Ritchie cried out into his lover's mouth as a wave of pain/pleasure washed over him. He whimpered as Daniel began moving, and soon he felt a piercing pain on his neck. "Daniel…" he whimpered again. 

"Shh… Don't worry, it'll heal for the most part… The gashes will… and other mortals will only see it as a hickey."

"What about other vampires?" Ritchie asked as he snuggled against Daniel's warmth with a yawn. 

"Like the other mark, it shows you're mine and if they touch you at all without your consent or in a sexual manner, they'll have to answer to my wrath…"

"Without my consent?" Ritchie asked looking up at him. 

"Like if they wanted to use you as a, meal…" his dark lover whispered as if he was ashamed. 

"But this shows they can't right?" Ritchie asked. 

"As long as they abide the code, yes… And since mine is the only clan within miles, you have nothing to fear at all…" Daniel answered his arms wrapping protectively around Ritchie tightly. "I love you and I swear I will protect you…"

"I love you too Daniel…Wait, OTHER mark?!" Ritchie asked looking up at Daniel face. He looked smug and content with himself. Ritchie sighed and snuggled to him again. "Possessive much?" He smiled at the whispered 'always' that greeted his ears before sleep over took him. 

*************  
"Toya… Daniel marked Ritchie…" Yuki said climbing up to the attic where Toya was riffling through things.

"I heard."

"What are we going to tell Erick?

"What else can we tell him but the truth? But Ritchie cannot go anywhere with out one of us with him now… It's not safe…"

"Why?" Yuki asked walking over to his lover. Toya pointed out the window. Yuki took off his glasses, they were for show anyway, and looked to where he pointed. "No… They've found us?" Yuki pressed into Toya's arms. "_Iie_[1], _koi_[2], they can't have found us! Tell me my eyes play tricks on me…_ONEGAI[3]!" _

"I have to tell Daniel…"

"Will Ritchie understand?"

"He understood enough to let Daniel mark him as his forever didn't he?" Toya asked climbing down the ladder. Yuki followed him and went back to bed shaking slightly. A hunter had almost killed Toya when he was to turn him. Yuki's hatred for the hunters rivaled his fear of them. Though at the moment, fear far outweighed his hatred, as he feared for Daniel. He was turned exactly one hundred years after Daniel, months after the Richard 'incident' to be precise. He harbored great dislike for the hunters even as a mortal without a vampire companion. They often killed innocents, much too often. They were going to kill him **before** he was turned. They were more than often despicable, the lot of them. Greedy men, and women now, who held no sense of soul or compassion or love. Yuki lay on his bed trembling as memories of his village played in his mind. He'd watched many people he knew die because they were just slightly different. 

Yuki remembered the night Toya came to him. Toya had been looking for someone to feed off of when he'd found Yuki. Pale, innocent looking, feminine, **_willing_** Yuki. Daniel had said that Toya would only understand how he felt when he knew his lover was going to die… If he ever took a **lover**, that is. 

~~ Flashback of Yuki and Toya ~~

Toya was expecting a fight, usually mortals fought when they have the primal fear of being eaten. But Yuki… No Yuki was different. Yuki saw him coming and turned to him a soft smile on his face. Toya had stopped and glared in return. Yuki was not as innocent as Toya had believed, his words proved that. 

"I know why you're here," Yuki had whispered to him so as not to arise any suspicion. 

"Why is that, then if you know so much," Toya had spat to him. Yuki rose from his bed and walked over to him. 

"You are here, because you were drawn here," he paused taking one of Toya's hands (Scaring him in all honesty as he never knew a mortal to do this. He'd always known them as being fearful of his kind.) and placing it over his heart. "By my heart's beating. Were you not?"

"In… In a way, yes. It was your heart that led me here," Toya had responded amazed by the violet eyes that looked up at him. They held no fear, of him at least. 

"You're a vampire. Here only for that which you need, my blood, and I beg you to take it!" Toya yanked his hand back.

"What game are you playing mortal?" Yuki looked hurt. 

"No game, immortal one… Not a game at all. I thought that perhaps you were the _yami__ tenshi[4] that I'd seen in a vision. That you might be the one, who would take me away from this pain," Yuki whispered looking down. "I am sorry to have troubled you. You wished for blood…" Yuki undid the ties of his robe, exposing his neck and shoulders. _

Toya cursed himself when his eyes found, not the vein he intended to bite but, the scars crossing and marring the flesh of his intended victim. Yuki's eyes remained closed as he kept his head bowed submissively. The violet hued boy shivered as Toya's almost frozen hands pushed the rest of the material from Yuki's body, completely exposing him. Yuki flushed, gasping in surprise as those cold fingers traced his scars. 

"Your, _tenshi," Toya whispered into Yuki's ear. "Why did he free you? From what pain do you wish escape?"_

Yuki lifted his head to meet the coal eyes of his captor, as he had no ability to flee now, even in his room. "From my pain…" he whispered in return. "The sickness that is taking over my body…" Yuki looked away from the eyes that were watching him intently.

"Who gives you these scars, _hikari_[5]?" Toya asked his grip on the slight body tightening. The boy let out a whimper. "_Onegai_, I ask you to tell me and not make me demand truths by waking your house…"

Yuki looked to him trying to search the coal eyes but he couldn't. "_Nii__-san[6]… gives me many of them… Others still come from my, my…" the amethyst trailed off. Toya opened his mouth to speak when footsteps sounded. _

"YUKI!" The boy froze. "If you're awake and plotting to run again…" a voice said from the other side of the door. Toya grabbed the robe and wrapped it around Yuki before fleeing the room. Yuki paled and gripped tightly to the vampire that held him before they stopped. They were deep within the estate, towards the guesthouses. Yuki was never more thankful that there weren't any guests. Usually, that was the only time his pain stopped was when he had people to serve. 

"Who was that?" Toya demanded as he set the boy down on his feet again.

"My, my master…" Yuki said quietly. "I was brought here, from down in the village. I shall stay for a few more days, before he decides if I shall go back there, to my home…" Yuki did not look at all joyed by this. 

"You speak as if you don't wish to leave his beatings."

"_Iie! That's not it!" Yuki said looking to him eyes fearful. "He won't let me go! He… he……" Yuki shut his mouth and turned away from Toya._

"_Iie_, Yuki-chan," Toya said pulling the boy to him. Yuki stiffened and whimpered. "I don't intend to do you much harm. I shall only take the blood I desperately need, as I wish to see you again." Toya pulled the robe from Yuki's bruised shoulders and laid kisses there. "And I shall make sure that he does not use you again, _hikari_."

"I do not know of what you speak," Yuki said as his body went rigid. 

"You lie, little one…"

"I am no child."

"That I did not say… I just said 'little one'. What are you to say to your master when he finds you in your room come the dawn?"

"I shall tell him I went to investigate a noise…"

"He won't believe you…"

"A new scar to add to the old."

"He shall pay."

"Why?" Yuki asked spinning to him. Toya pressed his hand over the boy's mouth. Yuki shut his eyes tightly, hands gripping the fabric covering the vampire tightly. 

"Do not question me." Yuki nodded a tear forming in his eyes. 

"_Gommen__ nasi[7], _yami___ kami[8]__." Yuki whispered when the hand was removed. _

"No tears, small one, for I've not hurt you," Toya whispered pulling the boy to him and brushing aside purple strands of hair from his finely sculpted neck. "This might hurt, but it shall heal quickly." Toya ran his finger over where he was going to bite.

"_Onegai_, be, be gentle please," Yuki whispered clutching to him, still not opening his eyes willing himself to calm. 

"_Hai[9]," Toya whispered kissing above the vein. Yuki jumped and whimpered pitifully as he bit down. The last thing he remembered was a pair of dark eyes watching him and a whispered, '_gommen___'_

_~*~_

Yuki listened to his master and mistress worry over the deaths that happened in village. 

"Yuki," the lady of the house said as he placed her breakfast before her. 

"H-hai?" he whispered kneeling on the floor. 

"Child, you told my husband you heard a sound last night. You investigated it…" she said lifting his head with her fan. The master had left the room. Her face softened. "Did you see anyone, _chibi usagi[10]?" she asked softly. _

"_Iie_, Madame. I saw nothing… I fear my ears were foolish last night," Yuki whispered to her, bowing his head again. Ayumi did not agree with her husband of the treatment of the servants, especially Yuki. The boy was timid to begin with but beatings for a small mistake were indeed foolish. 

"_Arigatou[11]," she whispered to him. "Get the tea Yuki." Yuki got up gracefully and left to get the tea. Her husband came in an angry look on his face. _

"Where is Yuki?" he barked out. 

"I do not know, dear. I sent him for tea just now, I'm not sure how far he's gotten," she said sitting placidly watching the fish jump in the pond just outside the room. 

"There are scratch marks on his door. As if someone were breaking it open to get in," he said glaring at the door waiting for his servant. 

"Yuki said he found nothing, that could be what awoke him," she responded. Her husband was going to beat the boy. She knew it was coming, and she was powerless to stop it. She already had to watch him slap the poor boy across the face. All he'd done was say where he was when his master was looking for him, and it seemed the truth. Though, secretly Ayumi wished Yuki had an admirer who wanted to take him back to the village. She was going to release him, whether her husband wanted it or not.  

Yuki entered and set the tea down on the table and rising to leave the room and wait outside of it as he was told when his master spoke up. "Don't go anywhere, boy." Yuki froze; standing still head tilted down as to not look into his master's eyes. Thus was how he was taught. "Who were you helping to escape last night?"

Yuki stayed quiet. "Miroku…" Ayumi started. 

"Hush, Ayumi. Well, Yuki? Who was it? A lover? The cause of the deaths?"

"M-Master, I do not know what you mean…"

"Don't know? I know someone tried to break into your room, boy. Now tell me who as I know you know!"

"Miroku!"

"I said to hush Ayumi!" The woman snapped her mouth shut audibly. Miroku grabbed Yuki's robes and pulled him to him glaring into scared amethyst eyes. "Well? Are you to talk or do I have to beat it out of you?"

"I saw not a person nor a beast Master! I swear this! I looked but saw nothing! _Onegai, believe me! I swear!" Miroku pulled him all the more closer. _

"I shall ask again later, and THEN you shall tell me the truth," he said before flinging the boy from him. Yuki sprawled on the floor tears in his eyes as Miroku left the room. Ayumi rushed to the boy's side but he pulled away from her. 

"Do you need anything, Madame Ayumi?" he asked getting to his feet. 

"No, Yuki. I do not. Thus, today you may retire to your room," she said kindly. 

"Begging you not think I am ungrateful," Yuki said bowing to her. "But I shall continue my tasks for today as intended."

"Very well Yuki… But, _chibi usagi_ should you wish to retire, or speak with me, do not hesitate. You have my order if that makes it any better," she said before leaving the room. Yuki placed the dishes on the tray and carried them back to the kitchen. _'Oh, Yami Tenshi, could you not have ended this torture?' Yuki asked himself. _

~*~

Unknown to him, Toya heard it. He'd never left a prey alive before, thus, Yuki's thoughts often interrupted his sleep. Toya sat up and prodded his younger brother Daniel enough to awaken him. 

"What is it Toya? The sun is up you know…"

"And it shall not kill you, but I must ask, you have left a **cough** meal option alive before… Do you hear their thoughts?" Daniel blinked. 

"You left them **alive**?" Toya scowled and Daniel waved the look away. "Honestly I wouldn't have thought you'd found one worthy of that… But yes, if the thought has enough emotion attached, you'll hear it. Why? Your mortal keeping up all day?" the African asked with a grin. 

"He is not **my** mortal and I thought that the thought link was only a rumor, that's why I asked." Toya then went back to his bed and turned his back to the smiling younger vampire. Daniel chuckled and went back to sleep. 

~*~ 

Yuki was wrapping his wounds, out near the guesthouses as he was walking towards the main house from his washing. Ayumi had sent her husband into town for two days. She had said he needed to gain more information on the deaths, and he needed a bit of a break. He had agreed but took the time to beat Yuki first. Ayumi had sighed and sent him to wash himself. Yuki was used to Ayumi's silent help, but most of him wished her free of her husband. Ayumi expressed once she didn't love him, she was married to him at the age of twelve. 

Yuki almost yelped as he was grabbed from behind, only thing that stopped the noise was the hand over his mouth. 

"Do you know, how much I despise daylight, Yuki?" a voice whispered in his ear. 

Yuki shook his head but calmed enough his mouth was release. "_Iie_, I'm sorry… but I don't know why you are here…"

"I can't sleep with your thoughts running through my head as much as they are," Toya answered him. Yuki blushed a deep crimson. "Do you really wish him gone? Does your Mistress wish him gone? If so, I'll have him taken care of. I'd like to sleep peacefully tomorrow," Toya expressed, still a whisper in his ear. Yuki stilled. 

"I do not understand."

"What?! I offer you the freedom you desire and you don't understand?" Toya asked spinning the boy to him. Yuki flinched away from him expecting blows. They did not come. Toya's onyx eyes gazed intently at him. 

"I am not the one who may decide. I have no power. The Madame is in charge, it is her decision as to what goes on in the house for two days," Yuki whispered. 

"YUKI! Where ARE you?! You still have things to do! If you're dawdling, little brother!" Calls came to their ears. Faster than one would think, Yuki was left alone as his brother came up the hill. "Yuki! You're not doing as told!" his elder, Akito, hissed grabbing wrist and pulling him roughly towards the main house again. Yuki sighed inwardly and looked back to the trees by where he'd been standing. Would the vampire return tonight?

~*~ 

Ayumi watched, as Yuki seemed distracted. She'd asked him to come and sit with her, keep her company. He came, no questions asked, and sat in a corner, eyes on his lap. 

"_Chibi Usagi_," Ayumi said looking to him. "Answer me this." Yuki brought his gaze to her. "Do you wish to return to the village?"

"I wish whatever the master desires," he murmured. His brother's harsh words rang in his mind. 

"That is not what I asked. I asked _Chibi Usagi, not Yuki the servant…"_

"I want to go home Madame," Yuki whispered tears in his eyes. 

"Your brother wishes to stay."

"It was his wish to come here to begin with," Yuki said emotionlessly.

"I want you to return home, before Miroku returns…" she said. Yuki gazed at her surprised. "Two sunrises is all you have, and once you leave, you should not come back unless I summon you, understood?"

"Of course, Madame Ayumi."

"Now, you should retire. You are distracted and the sun, it sets. We shall all retire early tonight and arise a bit late tomorrow!" she said rising. Yuki rose and followed her before going to his room. He felt happy as he changed into his night robes. He watched the night descend upon the estate before lying upon his bed, thinking of the vampire. 

He was awoken, sometime later, by a sharp nip at his neck. He stiffened. 

"Do not be frightened little one, for it is me," Toya whispered. "I sense contentment from you…"

"The mistress is sending me home," Yuki answered with a smile. Toya pulled the boy to stand. 

"So your problem is solved then," Toya said. Yuki looked down. "I know you are sick… But it is with a cure, I feel it… You shall not be lost to the sickness." Yuki raised his head and his eyes locked onto onyx ones. 

"You've come twice," Yuki whispered. "And I know not your name…"

"As it is, I should not tell you… As my Father, my sire, may punish me, but I see no harm as long as you keep it to yourself. My name is Toya."

"Peach blossom," Yuki whispered. Toya felt the color rise in his cheeks. Yuki nodded, as if approving the name, when he opened his eyes again, he was shocked at how close Toya's were to his. He went rigid as lips descended upon his own. He tried to pull back, fear over ridding his senses, but Toya held him fast. Yuki felt tears trail down his cheeks. Toya pulled back roughly before wiping at the trails. 

"Why do you cry?"

"Because I do not want a promise that shall not be kept," Yuki replied closing his eyes tightly. 

"What promise shall I not keep?"

"You shall leave. Leaving me here, in the village…" Toya at first didn't understand. "You'll use me, make me feel for you, then leave me here to wither away… My feelings for you distracting me and killing me more than any sickness could!" Tears were still slipping from his eyes. 

"The only reason I would leave, was if I was found out… As of now… I do not wish to use you, or leave you. You intrigue me, and I shall not let harm come to you."

"You say that now, but I know… I'm mortal… And you are a dark spirit of the night. You shall have you fill of a mortal's flesh quickly, then move on to one with more life in it."

"Listen little one," Toya said fingers, turning cold, gripped his chin. Yuki opened his eyes. "You speak as if you have known my kind before…"

"You admit you'd leave me then."

"I meant, my blood! Beings same as I am, creatures of night, hunters of blood." Yuki shivered at the way Toya put it. "My sire taught me one thing, if you want something bad enough, take it. And I intend to take you with me when I DO leave…" Yuki turned a bright crimson. 

"I-I…" Yuki's hand trailed up to Toya's face and touched it. "Then I am your servant, do with me as you wish, _Yami Kami…"_

"I intended on that to begin with, but your consent, makes it sweeter…" Toya said dipping down and biting Yuki again. He took just enough to make the boy disoriented. "When you return to the village, leave your window open, I shall come to you then. I shall mark you soon after," Toya whispered. 

Yuki, in his haze, brazenly opened his mouth and uttered the words, "Mark me now, Toya."

"No, next time little one…" Toya murmured with a smile. 

"Then kiss me again, _onegai!" Yuki asked him placing his fingers on the almost dormant vein in Toya's neck. "To remember your promise by…"_

"No tears this time…" Toya whispered leaning down and catching the soft waiting lips. Yuki felt himself be lifted into strong arms, his own wrapping around Toya's neck. He felt his pallet beneath him and whimpered. Toya was hovering above him as the kiss ended. "Ready to sleep?" Yuki nodded arching his neck so Toya had better access. Toya bit down and drew Yuki into unconsciousness. 

~*~ 

Things were not going well in the village when Yuki arrived. He found his childhood friend, arrested to be killed, tried as the vampire that was killing. Yuki had few words with him. A whispered '_ai__ shiteru'[12] and Yuki looked away into his uncle's arms. The man cared little for others but knew Yuki needed slight care. He only just returned and a friend was taken from him before his eyes. _

Yuki lay awake that night, his window open. Toya arrived smiling to him and dropping a kiss to the spot he always bit. Yuki squeezed his eyes shut, otherwise unresponsive. 

"_Nande[13], my small one, do you shy away from my touch tonight?" Yuki ignored the question, closing his eyes so tight that tears leaked. Toya wiped them away, sitting up and pulling Yuki into his lap. Yuki was almost limp. "__Nani[14]? What happened?"_

"He's dead now," Yuki whispered, emotions dammed within him. Toya frowned, what was the light speaking of? "He's dead, because… Because…" Yuki trailed off and tried to push away from Toya, a great hurt had settled on his heart. 

"_Iie_, my Yuki," Toya said, forming a tight grip on the boy in his lap. Yuki tensed. 

"You killed him," Yuki said not looking to Toya, more as looking through Toya. 

"What makes you say this?" Toya growled. 

"Because of the killings, he was killed! They said he was the vampire! As children he would clean and wrap my wounds after I took a beating. Before my brother took me to the estate, he promised to protect me…" Yuki's eyes glazed over with tears and sadness. Toya was amazed. The mortal dared to blame him, yet not in anger, in complete **despair. **

"Yuki…" Toya whispered wiping away the tears that formed. 

"His last words, were to me Toya!" Yuki sobbed, he buried his head in Toya's neck. "He whispered he loved me, and they **killed** him!" Toya let out a feral growl, holding Yuki to him. Yuki whimpered and moved to pull away. 

"_Iie_, my Yuki," Toya said, as Yuki could see his eyes burning in his own mind's eye. "They have wronged you…" Yuki sniffled, fisting his hands in Toya's clothes. He wanted to ask what he meant, but… "And I shall not stand for it…"

"Toya…" Yuki breathed out tilting his head to look at his master's face. Toya captured his lips in a kiss. Yuki, tears leaking, responded almost refusing to breathe, as he didn't want the kiss to end. "Toya?"

"What is it my Yuki?" Toya asked him winning a gasp from the smaller boy as he nipped at the spot just below Yuki's ear. 

"Mark me," Yuki whispered turning his head and catching Toya's lips. 

"Have you lost your innocence?"

"_Iie_," Yuki said looking to him with serious eyes. "It's all I have to show from my work. I've not had that taken… I've had to, perform favors, but never that…" He blushed, a thin line of red tingeing his cheeks. Toya was about to say something when Yuki continued. "But I am more than willing to give it to you." Yuki's head bowed as the blush deepened. Toya kissed the flushed cheeks. 

"So I shall mark you, completely mine, for eternity," Toya said undoing Yuki's robes and laying him on the bed. 

"_Hai__, boku no yami tenshi[15]," Yuki whispered responding wantonly to his new master. Toya smiled to him kissing him again as if to swallow those words. _

~*~ 

 Yuki's uncle didn't ask him who his lover was, just gave him stares when people were around. Yuki seemed to avoid contact. Either this man was that possessive, or Yuki was hiding something far greater than his identity. Yuki passed like this every day. His old friends thought it was from the beatings he took. Never asking, what was wrong or why he never touched them. Yuki's secret relationship with Toya seemed to remain just that, a secret, until the mark on his neck was observed by his friend, Taichi. 

"After what happened to Shin-chan, you take a lover?" he asked, eyes darkened with anger. 

"I had a lover, for a while before that," Yuki lied. 

"You can still face him after what happened to Shin-chan?" Taichi quietly raged. 

"Taichi-kun, I didn't love him that way," Yuki said looking at the ground. "I didn't know of his feelings till…." Yuki stopped as tears tracked down his face. He looked to Taichi, who also had tears but a silent rage, not a true rage, a rage that had spawned from jealousy, but would never progress past heated words. 

"He was waiting for you," Taichi said quietly. "He loved you since childhood… I was much too late to win his heart, and you have the audacity to have a lover and mock him?!" 

"I do not mock him Taichi!" Yuki seethed. 

"He died, knowing you didn't love him in return. He **lived knowing you didn't love him in return, yet he thought that perhaps you'd have ****one night! One night, that I would ****NEVER have," Taichi seethed turning on his heel and walking away. Yuki returned home, to sob in peace. He was still sobbing when Toya came to him. **

"Yuki-chan?" Toya asked pulling the teen into the shelter of his arms. It had been a month since he'd taken Yuki and marked him as his own. And the child had turned that of 17 years, and Toya knew he could not call him a child or a boy any longer. He was almost a man, and Toya treated him as such. 

"I-I don't want to mock the memory of Shin-kun!" Yuki sobbed. 

"How do you mock him?" Toya asked. He knew where this was going, someone had upset Yuki. 

"Taichi-kun, saw the mark, and he said I mocked Shin's memory by taking a, **choked sob**, a lover," Yuki explained. Toya frowned down at him, not understanding how that was so. "Because, Taichi loved Shin-chan, he holds his memory tightly to him daily… Shin loved me though, and longed for, **sniffle** a night, just one. Taichi is upset that he'll never have that night, and he never would because Shin was waiting for me," Yuki prattled on. "And he says that taking a lover, that by being able to face you, I'm practically laughing in Shin's face…"

"Oh my Yuki…" Toya whispered to him as Yuki calmed in his arms. "Would you have done things differently if you knew of Shin's love?"

Yuki froze in Toya's arm. Would he have done something different? No. He loved Shin as a brother, never a lover. He loved Toya, the dark being that came to him at night, who would come and touch him just slightly but that would make his heart jump. 

"Yuki?" Yuki didn't hear he was busy in his own mind. He was madly in love with Toya, though he was a vampire… It was practically forbidden. "YUKI!" Toya hissed in his ear. Yuki jumped and blinked and blinked at Toya who had a stormy look on his face. 

"I'd do not a thing differently," Yuki said calmly as he touched Toya's face. "I was yours before I met you, and I have not a quarrel with that…" Toya calmed down considerably. He slipped his hand beneath Yuki's robes and made him arch and moan. He grinned getting Yuki frazzled before a bite was much better than a calm one for Yuki would respond to the bite with more fervor. 

~*~ 

Then, the sickness hit. Yuki was practically bed-ridden for four days out of seven. Taichi was the last of his friends to be executed. Yuki had rushed over with his little bit of strength and hugged him. 

"When you see, Shin," he whispered. "Tell him, that I'm sorry. But I don't want him to wait for me, for I won't be there soon." Taichi had looked to him with tears in his eyes. "You're both like brothers to me, and I wish **you** happiness with each other. I know you're good for one another…" That was Yuki could say before he was pulled away by a man. 

"Show no sympathy to a vampire!" he had hissed. 

"He is not a vampire, he is a mortal soul," Yuki whispered turning away as the deed was done. He'd gone home, only to leave, flowers in hand, to the cemetery. He knelt by his friends' graves. 

"Gommen, my friends. I could not protect Taichi from their bloodlust…" he whispered, placing the flowers on them. "Even a true vampire, is no where near as cruel, as a human on a rampage…" Yuki didn't know that his uncle heard him. "I know… I've seen the kindness… But don't worry about me," Yuki told them. "He promised to protect me, as I am his…"

That night, Yuki's uncle did not leave his nephew's side. Yuki felt dead inside when he could not see his Toya. Toya said he'd never come if people were there, for he feared he's loose control of either his anger, or his hunger. 

Toya scowled at the man sitting by his Yuki. He watched the whole night. Yuki's sleep was ridden with nightmares, and Toya's heart wrenched. He also felt guilt; there was **NO** cure for what Yuki suffered, yet he knew the boy would not be lost…

"So that's the elusive meal?" Daniel asked perching on a branch near Toya. 

"He's attractive, I'll give you that much Toya," Jianliang said from beside the African. 

"Shut up," Toya growled possessively. 

"Toya, we came because Duzell fears you've made us known…" Daniel said quietly. 

"Impossible."

"Well, besides that handsome young fellow who was slain this morning as a vampire," Jianliang spoke quietly but off-handedly, "There's a man who was supposedly giving information to the leader of that sickening mob."

"What man?" Toya asked fangs bared in anger. He'd tear him apart. Daniel and Jianliang looked to each other before pointing to the man beside Yuki. 

"Him."

~*~

Yuki suffered through the day, miserable. His uncle slapped him around, saying degrading things. His brother visited and contributed to the pain, mocking Yuki's state. Worse of all, he was taken to another home in the village and questioned about what he knew of the vampires. They asked if they'd killed them all, if Yuki knew where they hid, how they picked their food, why they chose the village, how his friends were turned, if he himself was a demon as well… Yuki endured the torture they gave him, but steadily maintained that he knew not of what they spoke. Yuki's uncle helped him back to the house and locked him in his room. Yuki lay shivering, fear racing through his veins. He knew they were going to kill him, and he'd never see Toya again… It wasn't FAIR! 

"_Onegai, Kami_… Don't make me leave him," Yuki whispered towards the sky out his window. 

"Yuki!" The voice was urgent and Yuki stirred from the nightmarish dreams he'd been in. "Yuki, wake up! _Onegai, this is important, love!"_

"Hmm…" Yuki opened his eyes and they focused on Toya. "Toya-chan?" He nodded as Yuki sat up painfully. His eyes narrowed on the blood seeping from an open wound. "What are you doing here?!" Yuki asked eyes widening. "If my uncle finds you, he'll kill you!" Toya pulled Yuki into his arms. 

"Your dark angel rescued you from pain, _ne?" Toya asked him. Yuki nodded the pain fleeing his aching body while he was in Toya's arms. "He took you from this place and showed you new things, replaced your fears with hopes, and he loved you, correct?"_

Yuki again nodded, closing his eyes. He felt himself being lulled into peaceful sleep by Toya's voice and he felt calm and protected while in his arms. He snapped awake when Toya nipped his neck, holding his wrist out before the two of them. 

"I want to make you mine for all eternity, Yuki," Toya whispered in his ear. 

"I am yours, for eternity and on," Yuki breathed out stonily as if Toya had forgotten the mark on his neck. 

"No, little Yuki, not like that," Toya said bringing Yuki's pale wrist to his lips. "I want to turn you. Take you with me!"

"Then take me! Toya, they want to kill me…" Yuki said pressed his face into Toya's neck. 

"They shall not," Toya told him. "You have another sunset before they try… That's the way it's happened. Each time we found out, it was too late for us to help them…" 

"You wanted to help my friends?" Yuki asked looking to Toya amazed. 

"Hai, we did… Their innocent blood might as well stain our hands…"

"But the ones you…" Yuki trailed off. He knew that Toya's clan killed many for food. 

"That, is a different matter. And we never take someone who is completely innocent," Toya whispered. 

"Then why did you come to me?" Yuki asked, fearful he'd done wrong.

"You, were meant to be mine, that is why I found you and not another member of my clan," the dark one explained. "Now, you must rest…"

"But, you need my blood…" Yuki whispered tipping his head for Toya to access. Toya's lips brushed the mark before searching out Yuki's own. 

"Not tonight," Toya said. 

"You'll feed off another?" Yuki asked, looking hurt. Toya shook his head. 

"_Iie_, no other as long as you are mortal," Toya said nipping Yuki's lips. Yuki moaned against him, pulling himself as close to his vampire as possible. "You are my link to life… I shall be your link to the freedom you so desire…"

"In your arms, I have that freedom," Yuki replied, eyes shining with hope. Toya kissed him again. 

"I'll see you come moonrise tomorrow," Toya whispered, setting Yuki down on the bed and leaving. Yuki fell into a peaceful sleep; neither knowing his uncle listened to the whole conversation. 

~*~

The next morning, Yuki was dragged from his room, in a short, black robe. He struggled as much as he could but his weakening body protested after a while. He was thrown to the ground in the middle of town. 

"Yuki!" The boy looked up and saw Ayumi in the crowd, held back by Miroku. 

"Sush Ayumi, he's a demon don't talk to it!" Miroku hissed to her as she began to sob. 

"You are the young boy Yuki," asked a voice. Yuki turned to see a man in long robes. He looked like he would have been a wise old man, had he not gone insane. 

"That is my name, I shall not deny that," Yuki said. 

"You have a dark presence within you…"

"I think you sense that darkness from yourself!" Yuki yelled. "Killing innocent people, just to satisfy someone when there is a death?! What kind of monster are you?!" 

"Silence DEMON!" the man yelled taking a staff from one of the men who followed him. "You are charged with murdering the souls of innocents and corrupting people within the town with your evil ways!"

"WHAT?!" Yuki asked paling. "Killing? I can't hurt anyone!"

"SILENCE!" Yuki eyes began to tear as he was bound. "Your death shall cause the other vampires to flee!"

"I'm not a vampire! I'm a mortal!" Yuki said desperately as he was slammed to a wooden pillar and tied to it. 

"You are," the madman said pointing his staff at Yuki who flinched away fearing it would hit him. "And we shall leave you here tonight, so that when your sire comes to save you, he too shall die!"

Yuki lost all color in his face and his eyes went distant. _'Toya!__ NO!' he screamed in his mind. His mental body was thrashing about trying to get rid of the ropes, while his physical body was too busy sobbing. _

"_Gommen__ nasi, boku no tenshi… I couldn't protect you…" Yuki whispered brokenly to the ground. "Taichi, Shin, I think I'll be coming to check up on you soon…"_

~*~ 

Toya woke with a start. Daniel, who'd been having terrible images of Richard, was curled up beside him. He too stirred. "What is it, big brother?"

"_Otouto-chan_[16], Yuki's in trouble," Toya said getting up and pulling on heavy robes that practically covered all of him. 

"You're going out there?! There's mob waiting to find us!" Daniel said jumping up. Jianliang woke from his own slumber and glared at them. 

"Some people sleep during the day you know," he muttered. 

"Toya wants to go out and help Yuki! He fears he's in trouble!" Jianliang, who had not taken a lover in several years (almost seventy- where as Toya had a lover whom he never bit about eighty years ago), shoot up in bed. "You don't suppose the hunters want to…." The three brothers looked at each other and paled. The hunters were leaving him there for the night! That's how one of their own was killed in China for he was not careful. Toya scowled at the look he was given as he pulled the hood of the robe over his head. 

"I have to speak with Yuki. I have to find out how to save him," Toya said with aggravation. "And if you're not going to help, get out of my way!"

"Right!" the two younger vampires had said pulling on their own robes. Daniel was the hardest to conceal but he was still going to go with them. They were able to approach Yuki, who whimpered. He'd been beaten till his face was bloody and bruised. Toya knelt beside him; Daniel and Jianliang kept an eye out. 

"Little one," Toya whispered. Yuki looked up. 

"_Yami tenshi_! You must leave! They'll find you!" Yuki whispered through his swollen lips. 

"How often does someone check on you?"

"I'm not sure, why?"

"I'm getting you out of this of course," Toya said starting to untie the knots of the rope when Jianliang whistled. He looked just as a man stabbed his shoulder with a stake. Toya let out a hiss of pain his fangs coming out slightly. 

"You try to help this demon monk?" the man asked. It was Yuki's uncle. 

"He is no demon!" Toya hissed to him. 

"You're his sire!" 

"Uncle, no!" Yuki whispered as his uncle called for others to come. Daniel knocked him out with a brief motion. Toya was pulled away from Yuki, who was bawling. Daniel started to stop people from coming too close, which was a help to Jianliang, who was a busy trying to stop a couple of real crazies from killing Daniel and Toya. 

Toya looked at the man who pulled him away. He was ugly and fairly old looking. He was heading for Yuki with his staff raised high. "_IIE_! YUKI!" Toya started for them but man brought his sharp staff so it went through Toya's stomach, slowing him down. "_Iie, don't lay a hand on Yuki, or you shall pay!" Toya muttered. Yuki was sobbing._

"Oh, _KAMI_! Are you all right?! Please tell me you're all right, love!" The man took Yuki's distraction to his advantage. He made the same wound on Yuki as he had on Toya. Yuki gasped and gurgled slightly trying to breathe. Toya roared in a rage and with one smooth motion, he had broken the man's neck. 

Toya slashed the ropes and took Yuki's wrist in his hand. 

"Toya…" Yuki whispered, as Toya bit down on his wrist pulling some blood into his mouth. "_Ai shiteru, boku no yami tenshi_.." Yuki whispered. Toya bit his tongue and let the blood mix before kissing Yuki and getting him to swallow the mix. 

"And I love you, which is why I won't let you die!" Toya whispered to Yuki, who grasped at him as his wound began to heal. The dark teen picked up his lover and left with his brothers to return home and pack up a few belongings before leaving. 

"Toya," Duzell had said as they headed away from the village, he was assuming the Yuki with closed eyes and content smile was asleep. "Next time you wish to turn someone… Do it in a more, peaceful way…"

"I didn't have a choice… I didn't know if he wanted to be turned till it was almost too late Father," Toya returned, his grip on Yuki tightening. 

~~ End flashback ~~

Yuki had fallen asleep as he remembered those things, only to be awakened by a nip at his sensitive neck. "What caused those sad faces my Yuki?" asked Toya who was holding him now. 

"Memories…" Yuki answered snuggling to Toya. "You don't think that it should be forbidden for a mortal and a vampire to love, do you?"

"If I did, would I have you?" Yuki smiled at Toya's answer. 

"Probably not, but I was asking more for the sake of Daniel, as he is younger than we are, in appearance… Yet still very reckless," Yuki was reasoning as Toya nuzzled his neck.

"And hot headed and temperamental… OH! And we can't forget that he holds a grudge…"

"Just because he felt upset over the fact that you saved me when he couldn't save Richard," Yuki said giving his lover a look. "And the fact that he wouldn't speak to me correctly for months, doesn't mean that he holds a grudge."

"Really?"

"Really." Yuki said snuggling to him again as Toya kissed his neck. "Understood?"

"Yes… and my answer to your question is this. As long as it's true love between a mortal and an immortal, I don't give a damn. But if one is using the other, I'll get cranky." Toya chuckled to him. Yuki rolled his eyes as he drifted back to sleep. 

"_Baka[17]…"_

_____________________----------------------------------------*****************************

End of the chapter! ^_^

Kyo: What was with all the Yuki-Toya stuff?

Otogi: I thought this was a Daniel(Virgil)-Ritchie fic….

Crazi: It is! But, I have to delve into some of the characters before the plot runs away with it's self…

Jou: OKAY! Anyway…. **is trying to avoid a pointless argument** Seeing as how they were in Japan when Yuki met Toya, she used Japanese…which she's 'okay' at being an Otaku…

Pietro: But that doesn't mean anything so here's a list of the words/phrases she used and their meanings…

1- Iie = means no. easy enough right?

2- Koi = short form of Koibitto which is like a lover… or something like that. It's an endearing name for someone you're intimate with… (Japanese muses: -_-;; oy vey)

3- Onegai = please

4- Yami tenshi = Yami means dark/darkness and tenshi means angel 

5- Hikari = light

6- Nii-san = Big brother/ older brother

7- Gommen nasi = I am very sorry

8- Yami kami = as I said, Yami means dark. kami means God/gaurdian spirits or spirit

9- Hai = yes

10- Chibi usagi = little bunny

11- Arigatou = thank you

12-  Ai shiteru = I love you

13-  nande = why? 

14- Nani = what

15- hai, boku no yami tenshi = yes my (masculine possessive to be precise) dark angel

16- otouto-chan = little brother/ younger brother

17-  baka = stupid. Or idiot. 

Jou: so there's your list while that Baka goes on and does something else stupid like try and find a way to put Japanese in Harry Potter or something…. **gives Crazi a look as she blinks innocently at him**

Crazi: Jou, I don't know what you're talking about!

Draco: Please, review… 


	8. To Hear, To Know To Face a Past That Hur...

AN: Crazi: Another chapter! Don't hurt me!!!! **hides behind Kyo**

Kyo: Okay, everyone is getting on her about the whole thing with Yuki and Toya. Here's her explanation, **looks at a piece of paper** "Yuki has a special sense that was shown a bit in that snippit. He's going to play an –important- role in the upcoming chapters… but not really this one…" There you have it…

Jou: Please, R&R! ^_^

=========

"Daniel, Ritchie," Yuki said popping his head in the room waking the two nude lovers. 

"What is it?" Ritchie asked rubbing his eyes grabbing for his glasses. 

"You have to see the news, quickly!" With that, Yuki left. Daniel as busily pulling on his clothes, wide awake. Ritchie copied his movements and followed him down the stairs to the sitting room. 

An artistic teen sat on the arm of the couch while Yuki stood behind it. Toya sat on the couch and yet another male was seated on the floor at the coffee table a book in front of him. All of them were glued to the TV. Ritchie paled when he saw the headline streaming across the bottom of the screen. 'Policeman Attacked and in Critical Condition'. 

"The chief had little to say on what could have happened to Officer Foley while on patrol… The pictures were said to be too graphic for a general audience. We have no news as to how he's doing other than critical condition. His wife refused a statement and his son was not present to comment…" The woman said calmly. 

"Probably having a hard time coping with such a hard thing… Imagine coming home from school to that…" Her anchor partner said before moving on to the weather. 

"I **told** him that he needed to **blend** not stick out like a sore thumb," the artistic one said shaking his head. 

"I'm more concerned for the young Foley," said the one from the table. Yuki looked at the pale Ritchie who seemed in complete shock. Daniel was cupping Ritchie's face, murmuring in a language that was more than likely long dead, not that the vampire cared. 

"I think we all should be…" Yuki said. The three companions looked to the ready to breakdown Ritchie who allowed himself to be pulled into Daniel's arms. 

"Shit," they said. 

A door opened and shut loudly. Daniel growled low in his throat and clutched Ritchie tightly to him. "Everyone in one spot?" asked the man who entered the dining room, which was practically adjacent to the living room. 

"You are despicable!" Daniel spat at him. 

"Why the harsh words little one?" 

"You do realize your activities got on the news, don't you?" asked the man from by the coffee table. 

"Oh Erick! You wound me…" he said smirking at him. "What?! Before Toya was turned back in the olden days killings like that were normal!"

"He's not dead, you moron!" said the artistic redhead that stood up from the sofa's arm. "He's struggling to live! He's in a hospital and I don't know about Erick, but I sure as hell would rather forget the past before Father turned Toya!"

"You, Anthony," the offending vampire said getting into the redhead's face. "Are asking for me to hurt you…"

"I'd like to see you try, Stephan!" 

"Both of you!" roared Erick making Ritchie jump slightly. "Get a hold of yourselves… Or I'll have Stephan to live with Duzell.  Which, we all know will benefit **no one.**" The two backed away from each other. Anthony turned to Daniel and Ritchie. 

"I got a car, it's small, but I can drive you to the hospital if you like," he offered. Ritchie looked up at him then to Daniel. Daniel raised an eyebrow in question. Ritchie nodded to Anthony with a small smile. 

"Thank you…" he whispered. The three headed out. 

"He's helping a meal?" Stephan asked. Toya was at his throat. 

"Ritchie is a part of the family in my book, and I bid you to remember that, Stephan as you are the reason he's to go to the hospital…"

"What?" Stephan looked at Toya blankly. 

"That man you tried to kill was his father!"

"So intriguing these humans…"

"He's Daniel's…" Stephan paled. 

"Daniel has taken the young blonde to his bed?" Toya and Yuki nodded. "He's marked him?"

"Twice," they said. 

"He has to be stopped."

"Don't lay a finger on Duzell's youngest Stephan… He won't hesitate to hurt you," Erick said quietly. His pager went off. "Hmm… Seems I have a mortal to meet, I bid thee all farewell," Erick said heading out the door in a rush. 

Toya and Stephan glared at each other a while longer before each turning and going a different way. 

-------------------------  
"Mom," Ritchie said slipping past the guards to hug his hysterical mother. 

"Oh, my baby! Richard you're safe…" she said hugging him tightly. 

"It's all right mom…" he whispered to her. Anthony and Daniel were permitted back by them. "How is, dad?" Ritchie asked. 

"He's doing better…" she said quietly looking to the two who had brought her son. "You are…?"

"Forgive my manners," Anthony said sweeping a bit of a bow. "My name, is Henry. This is my adopted stepbrother Virgil… He and Ritchie have been meeting up at the mall since we moved in practically," he said with a wink to Ritchie who smiled kindly to him. 

"Thank you, for taking care of Ritchie…" she said shaking Anthony's hand. 

"Not a problem ma'am and we'd be more than willing to put him up for many a' night if'n you need to stay here," he said. Ritchie took one look through the glass at his father before turning around while Daniel was horrified. No wonder he was so afraid when he first became a vamp, he had that sickening thing inside him…

Anthony pulled Ritchie to him and patted his back. "I'm sorry little one… I don't know what got into him…" Ritchie looked up at him with a stony face. The three soon left, as Sarah Foley could no longer stand to watch Ritchie in the pain she was in. Anthony promised he'd take care of Ritchie and they were off. They were in the car, sitting in silence till Ritchie broke it. 

"Why did Stephan chose my father to attack?"

"I don't know, he might have just been close at hand…"

"What's wrong Ritchie?" Daniel asked, looking away from Anthony to Ritchie's troubled face as they pulled into the drive. 

"Part of me wishes he'd die now," Ritchie answered. Daniel pulled his lover from the car and into an embrace. 

"You don't mean that…"

"I think I do."

"Why?" Anthony watched with interest. 

"Because, it might as well be all the beatings he gave me at once… And then some… Karma says you get it back in three-fold."

"He's making sense," Anthony defended the blonde for a moment before Daniel glared at him. 

"I just don't want him to find out about you, and sell you out or something," Ritchie said curling into Daniel's warmth. The African lifted him into his arms and carried him inside the house and up to guestroom. 

Yuki met Anthony in the kitchen. "Well?"

"Stephan did a number all right," Anthony said taking an apple and beginning to peel it. "Be glad, Young Yuki that you were not around when we were that grotesque… You are much too fragile to handle it…" Yuki smiled to the artistic Italian. "Where is Erick, I can't smell 'im…"

"Went out to meet his 'mortal', soon after you left," Yuki grinned. 

"Oh YES! That professor or whatever right?" he asked the violet haired vampire, who nodded. "What WAS his major anyway?"

"I think it was history…" Yuki smiled pulling out a teacup and filling it from the ever present warm-water in the kettle. He put a teabag in and sat down at the small kitchen table on the other side of the door where Anthony moved with his apple. "Which means they have a **lot** in common…"

"You, Yuki, are not suited for sarcasm… Your face is much too innocent," Anthony said picking up the paper. "Stephan made the paper too? I'm amazed with all this fancy, technology that people still read these…" the elder vampire muttered. 

"I think that's more of a reason for me to use the sarcasm. And yes, several people still read the paper… After all, you can only get funnies in the paper…" he said smiling. 

"Honestly though Yuki, I want your opinion…"

"On what?" Yuki asked after taking a sip of his tea. 

"Well, seeing as how you are the most inclined in this house, the one who best listens to the wind and the other signs… Is, well… Is Ritchie actually Richard?" Anthony asked leaning forward. 

"I can't tell you for sure as I never met Richard," Yuki said staring at his tea before looking to Anthony, who was one of the four who cared for Daniel. The other three being Toya, Jianliang, and Erick. "But I think he might be his reincarnation… He is much too attached to Daniel… And Daniel refused to even **learn** the seduction enchantment spell… I remember Duzell speaking of it while I was learning magic…"

"So you think, that Ritchie attached to Daniel, er, Virgil, because he subconsciously **sensed** it was Daniel?" Anthony asked biting into his apple. 

"Don't quote me, but I think that might be it…" Yuki affirmed. 

"Remarkable…" Anthony spoke before the back door opened and two sets of feet entered. "Yoho, who enters?" Anthony called. 

"Please Henry, act more like your age," Erick said entering with a very attractive young man. He had dark brown hair that hung towards his eyes, which were a dark blue. "George, this is my brother Henry," he said gesturing to the redhead who extended his hand to shake. 

"Pleasure," George said.

"Same 'ere," Anthony mentioned. 

"And my adoptive brother's fiancé, Yuki," Erick said gesturing to the violet haired one who set his teacup down to shake his hand. 

"Pleasure…"

"Hai, the same here," Yuki said with a smile. 

"Where's everyone else?"

"Virgil and Ritchie are upstairs, as the poor blonde is still very distraut," Anthony said. 

"Buko no koibitto is up in the study writing on his book, and bakayaro netsumi is out… Yamero for that!" Yuki answered. 

Erick glared at the two while George had to resist the urge to chuckle. The young man who had come to his lecture and had immediantly caught his eye (especially with staying after and shyly asking if he'd join him for coffee and perhaps discuss the topic further) a about two weeks ago had mentioned when they met at the café today that his cousin who was living with him, his brother, adoptive brother and mentioned adoptive brother's fiancé was causing some household arguments. A big argument by the man's glaring and silent ranting and all around complaining. George had taken his hand and assured him things would be fine. It appeared as if no one else in the house had forgiven him. 

"Don't kill me for asking, Onii-san," Yuki said being slightly formal. "But what brings you two by here?"

Erick blushed adorably. Yuki couldn't help but think he was playing into the adorable inexperienced student role a **bit** too much. George's arms slid around his waist. "Not much…" he said which translated to 'If you two don't let me get a good make-out session at the LEAST, I'm going make sure you regret it for the next ten years!'

"Well then, I think I'll take Toya-chan his tea," Yuki said standing and sliding into the kitchen. 

"I better go check on Virgil and Ritchie… See if they need anything," Anthony said around his apple as he got up and left as well. Erick was silently pleased. 

"Those two words can cause them to move that fast?" George asked kissing Erick's neck. "You have more authority in this house than you think Aaron…" Erick blushed more as George placed a light kiss on his lips. 

"I don't think they did it for my sake to be honest," Erick said with a giggle as he pulled George towards the living room and shutting the doors. Yuki peeked towards the door from the kitchen while Anthony hung back on the back staircase. As soon as they heard a breathy yelp, they giggled and went to do as they said. 

*************************

"Tell me about your clan," Ritchie said as he and Daniel lay in bed, curled up to each other. 

"You don't remember?" Daniel asked threading his fingers through blonde hair. 

"No… I'm sorry… I barely remember anything," Ritchie told him. 

"Well… Duzell is the Vampire who turned me… The sire of most of the family. That being Erick, Anthony, Toya, Stephan, Jianliang, Isabelle, and Catherine."

"Weren't there more?"

"Yes." Ritchie felt Daniel wince. He was about to tell him it was okay, that he didn't need to know but Daniel continued. "We lost one as we were fleeing England, another two in France… We lost one in both Italy and in India… We lost two in China… Then we gained Yuki… We waited several years, hundreds of years. We returned to Japan, and Jianliang chose Takato as his mate. Takato, blinded by love, at first glance of Jianliang, practically threw himself at him begging him to change him the moment he found out, fearing his being a mortal would forbid them to even see each other. He was half right. After loosing so many, Duzell became somewhat over protective…" Anthony, who had stopped at the door continued to listen to Daniel speak to Ritchie, who seemed to listening intently. 

"So Duzell, wanted to prevent Takato and Jianliang from being together?" Ritchie asked. 

"He wanted to forbid it, but once a mortal is willingly marked," Daniel said smiling kissing both marks on Ritchie, "Not much can be done…"

"Why is that?"

"Because it is common knowledge among those who abide by the code, that the vampire shall take the marked with him wherever he may flee, or turn him. The choice is up to the marked, but they are completely bonded to the vampire…"

"You'll never be without me again," Ritchie whispered kissing Daniel soundly causing the other to moan.

"I haven't finished yet," Daniel said, obviously making Ritchie hold off on his advances. "But after Takato was marked, Duzell tried to form a loop-hole in the code, all to protect the clan. Toya and I weren't exactly pleased with it but there wasn't much we could do… Jianliang however vowed before Duzell and several mortal passerby, it was sunset by the way, that he was in love with Takato Matsuda and he'd die several terrible times over, I'm sparing you his harsh wording by the way love, before he'd allow himself to leave Takato behind willing. He'd never leave him, for in death, which was a shock to Duzell as no vampire speaks of themselves dying, the second time I mean," Daniel said as Ritchie giggled. "For in death he'd still be with Takato as he was his heart and no other could ever come close to filling the void in his soul as Takato did. And all Takato had to do was smile at the sky for being blue, which is a statement for any of his… He's very… oh, what word do they use, GENKI! That's it… He's very genki and won't shut up… Got used to it only after twenty years… But of course wind of his disturbance, went right to the bakery where Takato lived with is family. 

They were nice people I assure you, but narrow minded as a Roman Catholic is about the interpretation of the bible," Daniel said rolling his eyes. "They were devastated that their only son had chosen a male as a lover, let alone who would openly declare eternal love in the middle of the street!" Ritchie frowned. "I know it sounds like your father… I still damn the man though he's helpless in a hospital… Anyway they forbid Takato to so much as speak the word 'Jianliang' if they could, they would have told him not to think it." Daniel sighed, a smile coming to his face. "SO! Jianliang and I decided that there was no reason to make them into Romeo and Juliet, we'd recently seen it in Britain, so you can imagine us sneaking out of the house to find out what Takato really wanted and finish this crazy drama. We'd have never done it without Yuki and Anthony's help… Toya and Erick were a bit preoccupied with Duzell at that moment. So the two of us, snuck out of the house and down to the bakery Takato lived in. He lived on the second floor, same as his parents. He however was hanging out his window, looking down at the street, tears streaming down his face muttering something about dying.. Jianliang whistled to him and Takato smiled down to us. Bearing in mind that his parents are asleep we ask him if he wants to come with us and he says of course. I stop him however when I say 'No, we mean permanently. We're leaving tomorrow night…' Takato paled and looked over his shoulder at what I'm guessing was his door. He turns back to us and nods, a tear tracks down his face. He gathers a small bag of things, leaves a note and jumps out the window into Jianliang's arms."

"You're simply a wonderful spark of juvenille delinquency," Ritchie said sarcastically with a chuckle. 

"Well, I just wanted Jianliang happy. After all, I was still waiting for you to reincarnate Richard… And it was TORTUROUS," Daniel said and Ritchie giggles madly. Anthony didn't want to know what caused him to laugh so much. "But back to Takato and Jianliang, which Takato still calls him Jenrya as that's how they say it in Japan so you can chose either to call him by it's the same thing," Daniel explained. "Takato smiles to me as he's only really met me maybe twice at this point. He's a very sweet and optimistic kid I have to give him that… Don't look at me like that Ritchie he's younger than me I retain the right! I could **technically** call Yuki a kid, but I don't, as he was a year older than I was when he was turned."

"Not to mention that Toya would have your ass!" Ritchie giggled.

----------------  
The phone rang and Yuki picked up while Toya kept his eyes on his lover. 

"Mrs. Foley?" he asked identify the voice. 

There was a long pause and Yuki paled before thrusting the phone at Toya and running out of the room. "Ritchie!" he yelled running right into Anthony. The Italian steadied him as he banged on the door. Daniel opened it, Ritchie at his shoulder. 

"What is it?" the blonde asked. 

"Your mother called… It's your father… He's awake… And asking for you…" Ritchie paled and his grip on Daniel tightened. The dark vampire turned and embraced him. 

"I'll start the car!" Anthony said heading for the stairs. 

As Ritchie and Daniel came down the stairs, a rumpled looking George and Erick came out of the living room. 

"What's going on?" Erick asked as Yuki stood on the stairs, Toya's arms around him. 

"He woke up… Ritchie's a bit undecided on how he feels… He hurt him badly, but Virgil is not letting him ignore this. He is his father, and he needs to see him…"

"Wait, is that the Foley kid, the son of the officer that was attacked?" George asked looking shocked. Erick nodded leaning against him. "Amazing. He's one strong kid…"

"That he is," the three said watching through the window as Virgil helped Ritchie into the car and then climb in with him to continue holding him. 

==================  
AN: Calumon: End of chapter! Does anyone have sweets? **looks all cute**

Dai: SO there it is! Another chapter… Don't bug her for a while, she's working on other fics… She's got half a page written, on paper for the next chapter… so she's working, slowly… 


End file.
